Need we say more?

Update: Apparently we do need to say more.  Expect to get your hands on Portal 2 this holiday season.

Valve has announced a new version of Steam which is immediately available in public beta.

This opt-in beta is available immediately to all Steam users. If users already have Steam installed on their computer, they can take part in the beta by clicking this link (steam://open/settings) and then selecting "UI Update" under Beta Participation. If they don't have Steam installed, they can download it here (http://store.steampowered.com/). To preview the new Steam client without taking part in the beta, a complete rundown of the new features is available here (http://store.steampowered.com/uiupdate/).

With the new Steam release, gamers will now be able to see which games their friends have purchased directly within the Steam storefront. News outlets now have the ability to reach the Steam community through the new client's News aggregator functionality. Those organizations interested can contact Doug Lombardi at lombardi@valvesoftware.com.

With users purchasing more and more games through Steam, new methods of library management were needed. The new client introduces library customization tools to help gamers sort, group, and find games in libraries which for some hardcore players contain hundreds of titles. In addition to having lots of games, gamers needed methods of tracking all of their achievements in a standardized cross-game fashion, which is now possible with the new release. (more...)

Half-Life 2 developer Valve slammed "sh*tty" shovelware party games and said it would never place a "tiresome" mini-game for Natal in Left 4 Dead despite showing interest in the device.

Valve writer Chet Faliszek told CVG that the studio believes Project Natal is "really cool," but they hope other developers don't waste the opportunities it presents.

"Hopefully we've gotten past the point of mini-games," Faliszek said. "I'm sick of that [makes arm movement]. That's not a game for me anymore. Let's get some real interaction going.

"We have these technologies now that let us interact in different, really exciting ways. It's developers' jobs to do something with it. Impress me. Don't just make sh*tty games I wouldn't want to play if I had to use a joystick."

When asked if Valve would ever implement Natal into Left 4 Dead, the writer replied, "We'll see. You won't have to make the arm movement of sawing off a zombie's head in some tiresome mini-game. I can promise you that."

THQ and Valve today announced an agreement to power the PC version of 4A Games' Metro 2033 with a collection of Steamworks features and to offer the title electronically to the 25 million-plus gamers playing PC games via Steam.

All PC versions of Metro 2033 will be powered by Steamworks, providing gamers with auto-updating, Steam Achievements, Steam support for in-game DLC, and more.

"Metro 2033 is an incredibly rich experience featuring a truly unique setting, haunting atmoshphere and cutting edge graphics," said Richard Williams, THQ Vice President of Global Brand Management. "By leveraging the power of Steamworks and the reach of Steam, we are able to provide an even greater gameplay experience and expose the game to millions of gamers around the world." (more...)

Even though Gabe Newell has been known to bash the PS3, the studio may yet develop on the platform. Writer Chet Faliszek made the admission in an interview with Edge.

"Before we do anything on the PS3 we need to be able to support it in the right way," he said. "But we'll look at it, and I'm sure down the road we'll do it."

Could we be seeing Left 4 Dead on the PS3?

Valve released some astonishing figures for Left 4 Dead 2 today. Over 28 billion zombies have been "shot, bludgeoned, chainsawed and killed — or, for our younger readers, taken to a farm where they can frolic and shuffle around forever." Yes, billion, and if you want to talk specifics, its actually 28,981,249,043 zombies -- wait, now 28,981,249,044 -- and counting. The amazing part is, the game's been out less than three months!

Here's some facts to put that figure into perspective:

• The entire population of the planet has been zombified and killed 4.26 times.
• With the average height of a zombie being 6 feet, if you stacked them end to end they would circle the globe 1,322 times.
• If you placed 28,981,249,043 rulers end to end, they would reach 28,981,249,043 feet in the sky.

Yes, you read that right, the original Left 4 Dead is getting DLC. It's designed to link The Passing DLC that's coming out for Left 4 Dead 2, which will introduce the original survivors with the new ones. Complementing the DLC, is a Left 4 Dead comic book that "bridges the gap" between the two DLC add-ons.

"We've got DLC coming for Left 4 Dead 1, following [The Passing DLC] that tells you how the Left 4 Dead 1 surviors got there," Valve's Chet Faliszek told CVG. "The whole of Left 4 Dead leaves you in a little bit of a mystery as to some of what happens - not least when you kind of see a little bit of the tail-end of the Left 4 Dead 1 story, as you get on your way to [L4D2 campaign] Dark Carnival.

"With that, we actually have a comic book coming out between the two DLCs, which will help us give a little bit more of a back story to explain what's happening in the world."

Steam has released an update to both Left 4 Dead 2 and the Left 4 Dead 2 SDK, enabling PZ bots and adding some map fixes as well as a few other changes. As always, the update will be applied the next time you login to the game.

Check for the full list of changes after the break.

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Valve has released an update for Team Fortress 2 that includes a new game mode. The Highlander mode allows nine players per team, and limits both teams to one of each class. Aside from the update, TF2 also got a few fixes. Here's the full list of patch notes:

• Added new Highlander mode
• 9 players allowed per team
• Restricts each team to 1 of each class
• Use mp_highlander (0/1) to toggle off/on: default is 0
• Added "bots" to the server's sv_tags convar if the server is running bots
• Fixed a weapon name localization issue
• Fixed the "tf_teamtalk" server convar not controlling text chat between living/dead teammates
• Updated the map CTF_DoubleCross
• Fixed the map not ending correctly when using mp_timelimit
• Changed to prevent Engineers from building on top of the shack in each base
• Updated the map Arena_WatchTower
• Fixed a case where players could open and get stuck on the starting gates before the round start
• Improved clipping to prevent people from getting out of the map
• Optimized the map for better performance

Valve announced today that its digital-distribution platform, Steam, now has over 25 million accounts worldwide.

"Steam turned five years old in March 2009," said Valve co-founder Gabe Newell. "With the introduction of each new platform feature released over the years — such as the Steam Community, Steam Cloud, and Steamworks — we've seen corresponding growth in account numbers, concurrent player numbers and developer support for the platform.

"As such, we plan to continue to expand and grow the platform to better serve the developers supporting the open platform and millions of gamers logging in each day."

Valve also revealed that Steam has over 1,000 games from over 100 developers and publishers, with 2009 being one of the service's best years yet. Sales for last year were up 205%, making it the fifth straight year in which unit sales were up over 100% year-over-year.