ValveTime Weekly News Round-Up - 23rd December 2012

Hi, and welcome to the ValveTime news.
Each week, we'll bring you the biggest talking points regarding Valve Software and the community.
And now, the final news for 2012.
The Dota 2 winter event was released earlier this week.
The original update, entitled "Frostivus," was canceled
after hundreds of Greevils invaded the map and stole everyone's presents.
Instead, the "Greeviling" event began,
in which both teams are challenged with defeating camps
filled with a bunch of pesky mega-Greevils.
The first team to destroy 11 camps is declared the winner.
All members of the winning team will receive a "Nice Frostivus Gift",
while the losing team will all receive "Naughty Frostivus Gifts" instead.
The nice gift gives the user a higher chance to receive rare items
such as Greevil eggs and essences.
Players can use their whistles in-game to turn into their Greevil at any time,
which has been transformed from a simple courier into a powerful fighter
wielding a variety of abilities based on whichever essences
were given to the egg before it was hatched.
The Polycount winner item sets were also made available for users to purchase from the store.
In similar news, Team Fortress 2 also received it's annual update,
entitled the "Mecha-Update."
The update is particularly focused on the Mann vs. Machine gamemode,
introducing a new Engineer robot class named the "Mecha Engineer,"
who is capable of teleporting him and his teammates long distances across a map.
A brand new map, Big Rock, was also introduced,
which is currently the largest map available for the game mode by quite a significant difference.
A variety of items were also included,
such as the new Engineer bot-killer weapon received for completing the Big Rock Tour of Duty.
A trio of new weapons for the Demoman, Engineer, and Medic
and a whole host of new Christmas-themed cosmetic items were added,
including a reindeer-styled Balloonicorn known as the Reindoonicorn...
Yeah...
The Naughty & Nice Crates have also made a return from last year
after their inclusion last week.
Opening the crates with the relevant key will give one of a whole host
of new Christmas-themed items from the update.
The update was released alongside a brand new comic,
which takes place after the events of the original trio of Mann vs. Machine maps
and focuses on Mann Co.'s continued efforts to stop Gray Mann's robotic invasion
of all Mann Co. facilities.
In case you ever desperately needed to purchase hats but just couldn't get to your game,
fear not!
The Mann Co. Online Store was also revealed in a blog post as the update went live,
which functions as a browser version of the in-game store,
allowing players to purchase items using real-life money.
Links to the Team Fortress blog, the update page, the comic, and the Mann Co. Online Store
will be available in the video description just in case you want to scratch that TF2 itch.
Speaking of buying things for real-life money,
the Steam Holiday Sale began earlier this week, which has once again reintroduced
daily deals, flash sales, community voting, and publisher packs,
which have all made a return from both the summer sale and the autumn sale.
So far, we've seen a whole host of brand new games on sale during the daily deals,
including Borderlands 2, Dishonored, and Darksiders II,
so be sure to head on over to the Steam Store via the link in the description
to keep up-to-date on all the different deals as they change.
The sale ends on January 5th, 2013, so check back every day until then to grab yourself a bargain.
Oh, and the sale features it's own Steam Badge
in the form of the Steam Holiday Sale 2012 Badge,
so don't forget to participate in the event to get your hands
on a virtual image of a Christmas tree.
Hooray!
Last week, we told you about how SteamForLinux.com were reporting
that the Steam Linux beta would become open to all users at some point this week.
Guess what?
They were right.
The Steam Linux beta is now officially open to all Steam users as of Thursday this week.
To get started, download the Linux client from the link in the description
and install it onto Ubuntu.
Steam currently boasts a total of 36 games which officially feature Linux support,
so don't be afraid to give it a try if you're a Linux user.
Just be sure to submit feedback or information regarding bugs and problems
to Valve's official GitHub repository -
also available via a link in the video description.
The latest video in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Pro Tips series
was released this week.
The video focuses on nEiLZiNHo,
a member of the team FM! TOXiC.
Neil focuses on his personal strategies regarding team engagements on de_nuke.
A link to the video will be available on-screen now as well as at the end of this episode.
Steam Greenlight has once again been in the spotlight this week
as Valve announced that the next batch of Greenlit titles
will be announced on January 15th, 2013.
We believe this will include both games and software
in a manner similar to last month's update.
There isn't really much more to say, other than you should head on over
to Steam Greenlight to vote on your favorite titles as Valve are keen for people
to spread the word on their most-loved games or software.
The Open Source Filmmaker Steam group is currently running their latest themed week,
which is titled "SANTAPOCALYPSE."
The event is set to run from Saturday the 22nd of December until January the 1st, 2013.
So head on over to get your SFM on.
The Valve Store also began selling game-themed Plantronics Gamecom headsets
earlier this week in a variety of styles, including
Dota 2, Aperture Science, Counter-Strike, and Mann Co.
Available from either the Valve Store or the dedicated page on Plantronics' website,
all four designs are available for the Gamecom 780 headset
and the more expensive Gamecom Commander headset.
Our video producer, Nick, already owns a Gamecom 780 and he mentioned it here in the script
that he highly recommends it.
A link to both pages will be available in the video description.
And...
Our final few news stories of the year would, of course, be merchandise-related...
Just as well it's a good one.
Earlier this week, NECA revealed the 1:1 scale replica of the Gravity Gun from Half-Life 2.
As shown here, the gun is currently in prototype form
and is set to be released in Spring 2013.
The gun will apparently be limited to an unspecified number of units,
which, according to NECA, are "not as limited as the Portal replicas were."
Pre-orders are set to open soon, so don't put your wallets too far away
since we imagine this one will fly off the shelves.
During last week's ValveTime NewsTime TriviaTime segment,
we asked you how many updates Team Fortress 2 had received
between its launch on September the 17th, 2007 and December the 15th, 2012,
which, as the Team Fortress 2 blog's "History" section clearly shows us,
is 330 individual updates.
However, this is simply Valve's "official" number,
which hides all the secret updates such as the alternate reality game updates.
The Team Fortress 2 wiki, on the other hand,
tells us that there have officially been 337 individual updates,
excluding separate updates for the Xbox 360 Orange Box version of the game.
We're going to take a break from TriviaTime over Christmas
for reasons we'll... tell you about in a moment.
And that brings us to the end of another YEAR of Valve news.
Thanks for watching.
We're going to take a break from the ValveTime Weekly Round-Up
while we recharge our batteries over Christmas and New Year.
But wait!
Don't get too upset.
That doesn't mean there won't be any content from us.
We just honestly think there won't be any news since all the Valve employees
will be at home enjoying Christmas with their families.
The next ValveTime Weekly News Round-Up will air on Saturday the 5th of January 2013,
which is in about 2 weeks.
We'll be sure to cover any news stories that might crop up in that time on the next episode.
Stay tuned.
Thanks for watching and
bye for now.