Valve Corporation, also known as Valve Software, is an American video game developer, publisher, and digital distribution company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. It is the developer of the software distribution platform Steam and the game franchises Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Portal, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead and Dota.
Grand Theft Auto 2 is an action-adventure game developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games in October 1999 for Microsoft Windows and the PlayStation, and the Dreamcast and Game Boy Color in 2000. It is the sequel to 1997's Grand Theft Auto, and the second main instalment of the Grand Theft Auto series. Set within a retrofuturistic metropolis known as "Anywhere City", the game focuses on players taking the role of a criminal as they roam an open world, conducting jobs for various crime syndicates and having free rein to do whatever they wish to achieve their goal. The game's intro is unique for a title in the series, as it involved live-action scenes filmed by Rockstar Games.
Half-Life 2 is a 2004 first-person shooter (FPS) game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It was published for Windows on Valve's digital distribution service, Steam. Like the original Half-Life (1998), Half-Life 2 combines shooting, puzzles, and storytelling, and adds new features such as vehicles and physics-based gameplay. The player controls Gordon Freeman, who joins a resistance to liberate Earth from the Combine, an interplanetary alien empire.
Steam is a video game digital distribution service and storefront managed by Valve. It was launched as a software client in September 2003 to provide game updates automatically for Valve's games and expanded to distributing third-party titles in late 2005. Steam offers various features, like game server matchmaking with Valve Anti-Cheat measures, social networking, and game streaming services. Steam client's functions include game update automation, cloud storage for game progress, and community features such as direct messaging, in-game overlay functions and a virtual collectable marketplace.
Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots is the official expansion pack to the real-time strategy video game Rise of Nations. The game is the second in a series of Rise of Nations games by Big Huge Games. Thrones and Patriots had its premiere release for Microsoft Windows on April 27, 2004 in North America, and was later bundled up with Rise of Nations as the Gold Edition, which was released for Windows on October 28, 2004, and for Mac OS X in November 2004. Rise of Nations: Extended Edition was released on Steam on June 12, 2014 and includes both the original game and Thrones and Patriots with updated graphics and Steamworks integration for multiplayer.
Crash Bash is a 2000 party video game developed by Eurocom Entertainment Software in association with Cerny Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It is the fifth title in the Crash Bandicoot series and the first entry in the series in the party genre. The game includes a collection of 28 mini-games playable within three modes of gameplay, as well as eight playable characters from the Crash Bandicoot series.
Day of Defeat: Source is a team-based online first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve. Set in World War II, the game is a remake of Day of Defeat. It was updated from the GoldSrc engine used by its predecessor to the Source engine, and a remake of the game models. The game was released for Microsoft Windows on September 26, 2005, distributed through Valve's online content delivery service Steam. Retail distribution of the game was handled by Electronic Arts.
Call of Duty 2 is a 2005 first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision in most regions of the world. It is the second installment of the Call of Duty series. Announced by Activision on April 7, 2005, the game was released for Microsoft Windows on October 25, 2005, and as a launch title for the Xbox 360 on November 22, 2005. Other versions were eventually released for OS X, mobile phones, and Pocket PCs.
FlatOut 2 is a 2006 action racing video game developed by Bugbear Entertainment and published by Empire Interactive in Europe and Vivendi Universal Games in North America. It is the sequel to the 2004 game FlatOut.
Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41–45 is a tactical first-person shooter video game based on its predecessor Red Orchestra: Combined Arms. After winning the Make Something Unreal contest, the team behind the original Red Orchestra started the game studio Tripwire Interactive and developed Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 as their first project.
Scratches is a 2006 mystery horror adventure video game developed by Nucleosys and released by Got Game Entertainment. It is the first commercial adventure game ever to be made in Argentina.
IGN is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN EntertainmentInc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former editor-in-chief, Peer Schneider. The IGN website was the brainchild of media entrepreneur Chris Anderson and launched on September 29, 1996. It focuses on games, films, anime, television, comics, technology, and other media. Originally a network of desktop websites, IGN is also distributed on mobile platforms, console programs on the Xbox and PlayStation, FireTV, Roku, and via YouTube, Twitch, Hulu, and Snapchat.
Half-Life is a series of first-person shooter (FPS) games created by Valve. The games combine shooting combat, puzzles and storytelling.
The Orange Box is a video game compilation containing five games developed and published by Valve. Two of the games included, Half-Life 2 and its first stand-alone expansion, Episode One; had previously been released as separate products. Three new games were also included in the compilation: the second stand-alone expansion, Half-Life 2: Episode Two; the puzzle game Portal; and Team Fortress 2, the multiplayer game sequel to Team Fortress Classic. Valve also released a soundtrack containing music from the games within the compilation. A separate product entitled The Black Box was planned, which would have included only the new games, but was later canceled.
Ticket to Ride is a turn-based strategy video game, based upon Alan R. Moon's German-style board game of the same name, developed by Next Level Games and published by Playful Entertainment, Inc. The game started out as a browser game on November 15, 2004. In February 2017 Days of Wonder abandoned Linux support, although Xbox still seems to support the game having crossed it over to the Xbox One & Xbox X.
Call of Duty: World at War is a 2008 first-person shooter game developed by Treyarch and published by Activision. It is the fifth main installment of the Call of Duty series and is the fourth entry in the series to be set during World War II. The game was announced by Activision in June 2008 and was released in November 2008, for PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360, and Wii. Other games under the World at War title were published for the Nintendo DS and PlayStation 2, featuring different storylines and missions.
Zen Bound is a puzzle game for the iOS, Android, and Maemo platforms, developed by Secret Exit. It was announced on September 5, 2008 via the company's discussion board, and officially released via the App Store on February 24, 2009, and via Ovi Store on June 16, 2010. A port to Android was announced as part of the Humble Bundle for Android 2 on March 19, 2012. The game has received press attention for its unique gameplay. A lite version of the game was also released for free which featured 2 levels of the game. A sequel, Zen Bound 2, was released for iOS on April 1, 2010, for Steam on November 16, 2010, and for the Nintendo Switch in Europe and North America on May 24, 2018.
