There’s many ways to measure the success and philosophy of a company, specially in the gaming industry; however, one of the weirdest ones has to be judging it by its snack bar. In this student video filmed at Valve HQ we get both a look at Valve’s history as well as the history of, you guessed it, its snack bar.

In a very commendable move Valve has announced a set of 3 premium hats for Team Fortress 2 to aid the Japan aid efforts. The set of 3 community-made hats compliment the recent Japanese item set launched for the game. Priced at $7.99, $19.99 and $99.99 these hats are really not priced for the casual hat collector, all proceeds from the sales of these items will go directly to the relief efforts. Classy move Valve, we approve.

Valve is launching a series of videos promoting the diverse and exciting products of Aperture Science, voiced by none other than Cave Johnson, undead founder of Aperture Science, voiced by none other than K.K. Simmons. I’ll take 12 of those panels please!

For those who are in the know, we are at war, for those not in the know, Team Fortress 2 is in the process of releasing 2 updates for its classes. Today Valve revealed the first two new weapons for the Demoman and they are the stuff of legends, to say the least.

A cursed sword, the Eyelander, and a buckler shield called the Chargin’ Targe. In conjunction they can deliver a big crit-punch to anyone in the Demo’s way. This is of course begging for a Kilt and some blue face paint. This should prove an incentive to the Demomen who are losing the war against the soldier. These Scotts better step up because in the end… there can be only one. OH GOD OK I’LL STOP WITH THE HORRID IRISH JOKES.

Left 4 Dead 2 is looming in the horizon just a little less than a month away and here at DDN we’re all excited! Yesterday an amazing new trailer was conveniently leaked online. Finally we get a better glimpse at the personalities of the survivors. I’m quite fond of Coach, who we see showing complete disregard for the new melee weapons in the game and simply punching a freaking zombie right in the face. You know, I’m fine with that, a man should need no better tool than his fists to end a zombie apocalypse.

Are you excited? Let us know!

There’s a lot of great cosplay out there but even some of the best cosplayers out there often forget about the play in cosplay. Not so for this amazing man cosplaying Heavy Weapons Guy. The guy not only has a spot-on costume, he has the voice and mannerisms down to a science. Cosplayers, we need more of this! Heavy Weapons Guy is credit to cosplay!

Today the unexpected and quite welcome First Ever Classless Update for Team Fotress 2 came out. With this latest update we get eighteen new and quite awesome hats. Too bad they are still rare as hell. We also get a new game mode, King of the Hill. The verdict? Like every other KOTH mode on any other FPS… it’s a spamfest, and this is coming from someone who plays Demoman a lot.

The devil, as always, is in the details though. A really big list of small updates to the game were implemented that make the game more enjoyable and for once this all happens without a class getting overused for two weeks. There were really very heavy hints at the next update being for the soldier and there are even conspiracy theorists that claim that Friday Valve will release a fourth day of updates.

Not excited? How about this: There’s a small segmen on GTTV tonight with Valve and apparently they will talk more about TF2 animated clips, the comic and even Half-Life Episode 3. You heard that right, Episode 3. Expect more in the morning.

The Horde is back and now it brought friends. Left 4 Dead 2 was announced today to the total surprise of everyone. Its bigger, better and brighter, with a lot of the campaigns now taking place in daylight. Set in the southern United States, this game is composed of 5 brand new campaigns which are now finally intertwined in a bigger story. Here’s what we know.

Read more!

Valve finally released the Scout update for Team Fortress two. Along with a sleuth of new community maps, a stunning baseball, an energy drink called BONK and a more sawed off sawed off shotgun, the update fixed a bunch of old annoying things about the game. The most important of these being the facestabs the spy could pull off. However the long awaited addition to the Meet the Team videos was… unexpectedly missing. That’s right, no new meet the team video, not even a Meet the Sandvich clip like the last time.

However, not all is lost, the update also added a bunch of new voice commands and domination taunts. So far only the Scout domination taunts have been released and brother, they are awesome. This video, compiled by the wonderful Nero, is the magnum opus of insults and taunts. You’ll never hit his tiny head!

If you dont have TF2 yet, its the perfect time to buy it at half price (only $10 you cheapskates), if you already have it, prepare for a couple of weeks of playing Pyro and taking it easy as the scout rushes burn in your wake.

Thanks Nero!

From the ‘GIVE US MOAR’ department here at DDN HQ we bring you Escape From City 17, a short film about the escape from city 17 of some members of the resistance. Filmed in episodes, just like the game, the first 2 episodes are a wonder of guerrilla filmmaking, both being made for under $500. The creators, the Purchase Brothers, are a duo of film makers usually focusing on commercials.

Fans of the Half Life series will appreciate the perfect mix of in game sounds and little details that appear in this film. So far only part 1 has been released, showing scenes of the protagonists escaping City 17 and what appears to be Ravenholm (awesome!) but will surely keep you posted as more are released.

The short looks so genuine that it makes you crave for more. Both Valve and the Purchase Brothers are to blame here. Valve for creating such a believable urban environment and TPB for pulling off some film magic the likes of which we rarely see.

And yes, there’s crowbar manslaughter, glorious crowbar manslaughter!

[The Purchase Brothers]