We're continuing to deliver on our promise to bring high-quality, immersive PC games from Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda to more people in more ways. Today, we're announcing that Deathloop, Gears 5, Grounded and Pentiment will be available to play for Boosteroid members beginning June 1. This is another step to ensure players worldwide have access to great content on their terms.

Boosteroid customers in the Ukraine, the United Kingdom, countries across the European Union, and the United States will soon be able to jump in as Kait Diaz to take on the Horde in Gears 5, team up with friends to survive and explore the backyard of Grounded, attempt to escape a seemingly never-ending timeloop in Deathloop, or experience life in an illustrated world with Pentiment. These four titles are just the start - we'll regularly add more hits and fan favorites from our extensive catalog of PC games. Boosteroid members will be able to access games purchased through Steam or the Epic Game Store (for eligible titles) to start, with support for games purchased through the Microsoft Store coming soon.

To celebrate 10 years of Metro: Last Light we are giving away the original 2013 Complete Edition of the game, totally free for you to keep on Steam! Dive into the thick, foreboding atmosphere of Metro: Last Light as you follow Artyom into the darkness. Experience a story of betrayal and redemption and join fellow metro-dwellers in a bid to survive the harsh and hunting place the world has become.

Claim yours before May 25 and you will receive the Metro: Last Light Complete Edition which includes all DLC for the game including:

• Ranger Mode and RPK
• Faction Pack
• Tower Pack
• Developer Pack
• Chronicles Pack

Plus, its a great time to dive into the dark, immersive tunnels of Metro as the entire franchise is also on sale at up to 80% off.

Valve's Steamworks Development team has reaffirmed, in an announcement earlier on this week, that the company is committed to protecting the privacy of its userbase: "Steam will continue to not share personally identifiable information. This approach to privacy means that some trade-offs have been made along the way that limits how specific some reporting can be. In most cases, it simply means that any traffic sources that are below a threshold of volume will get reported as "other". We intentionally don't collect or store demographic information about users such as age, gender, or race."

Valve has decided to drop its usage of Google Analytics as part of Steam's traffic monitoring package: "As of this coming July, Google will no longer operate Universal Analytics (UA), which is a third-party traffic reporting system that we've had available for measuring traffic sources to Steam store pages. Their announced replacement will be a system called Google Analytics 4 (GA4). You can read Google's help article about the topic." Valve has chosen to develop their own system instead of upgrading to the latest version of third-party software: "As time has gone on we've come to realize that Google's tracking solutions don't align well with our approach to customer privacy, and so with the migration to GA4 we've made the decision to end our support of Google's analytics systems on Steam. Instead, we're focused on building the most useful parts of aggregated reporting into Steam itself, as described above."

RISMATIKA and Galaxy Grove today announce Station to Station, a brand new minimalist, voxel-art railroad building simulator, which will be pulling into Steam later this year. In Station to Station, players are tasked with transforming a small rural world into a vibrant, lush environment full of life and colour by placing stations and creating connections to foster growth and expansion. Grab your conductor's hat and watch the beautiful, tilt shift-inspired, voxel-art world come to life in the brand new announcement trailer.

Aspiring conductors will hop on board and steam through a variety of colourful biomes, breathing new life into dry desert sands, and transforming untamed mountain terrain. As the tracks are laid down a tranquil world will spring to life with an ever-widening tapestry of flora and fauna! For those seeking to test their management and planning skills, each of the game's levels offer their own optional challenges, stack bonuses, and unique mechanics tied to every biome. Whether seeking relaxation or mental stimulation, Station to Station has something for everyone!

For gamers that ended up buying massively hyped games and found them to be quite disappointing, Valve is there to help. Valve's Steam will now allow gamers to play games for free for up to 90 minutes before forcing them to either pay to continue playing or end the game there. Starting with the new Dead Space Remake, gamers will be able to enjoy the first 90 minutes of gameplay without committing any funds towards the purchase of the game. Given that today's AAA titles can cost 59.99+ USD, this is an excellent choice for gamers wanting to try out the game before purchasing to finish the gameplay.

The new measure is already available to gamers on Steam, as the Dead Space Remake is the first to kick off the wave of 90-minute trials. Previously available for 59.99 USD, the game is on a 20% discount until May 29 and can be had for 47.99. We need to find out if more games will support this policy of free trials or if Steam will force some titles to do the same. Valve's older measures, such as refunds, are still in place; however, refunds require less than two hours of the game being played, so a refund can be valid.

Logitech G, a brand of Logitech and leading innovator of gaming technologies and gear, announced the long awaited launch of the award-winning Logitech G CLOUD Gaming Handheld in Europe starting on 22 May 2023. In addition to North America and Taiwan, Logitech G Cloud will now be available in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland, available on LogitechG.com, Amazon, Currys, Fnac, and MSH Electronics for a suggested retail price of $349.99 / €359 / £329.

To celebrate the European launch, Logitech G has worked with its partners to offer a special bundle that includes up to 6 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate which includes Xbox Cloud Gaming, 1 month of NVIDIA GeForce NOW Priority, and 1 month of Shadow PC. It will be available in select countries effective from 22 May to 22 June 2023 while bundle supplies last.

The day has come - Voidtrain is finally available on Steam! Grab the game with a 10% launch discount, bring your friends with you and embark on an endless journey through the breathtaking worlds of the Void. And there's Deluxe Edition as well! While Voidtrain is already a visually appealing game (at least we hope so), we also have a Supporter Upgrade for approx. half price of the game that will take it to the next level. This pack includes a variety of unique in-game skins and decor items, as well as our heartfelt gratitude for your support.

Become a crew member of an Interdimensional Express Train! Discover a new world full of mysterious creatures, enemies and places. Upgrade and customize your train, gather new materials and build better weapons. Play solo or online сo-op with up to 4 people. You are an engineer thrust into the strange and mysterious Void, a world with its own history, rules and future. Build and upgrade your own train, craft powerful weapons, fight various enemies and survive the surreal landscapes of the Void alone or together with friends.

The Answers Lie Inside…Firmament is a new puzzle-adventure game by the legendary game studio, Cyan Worlds, behind the best-selling games Myst and Obduction. Featuring deep storytelling and world-building, discover the story of this seemingly abandoned world as you explore and unlock the mysteries of 3 unique Realms… and beyond! Firmament will be available on May 18th.

We are overjoyed by the positivity and excitement around Firmament's latest cinematic trailer. Thank you everyone! Can you believe it's only 10 days until launch? Haven't watched or wishlisted yet? Check out the video and links below!!

Paradox Interactive states: "To my fellow Godir. First off, we want to thank you for the awesome release! It's been amazing seeing so many of you finally getting your hands on the game. Many of you have been able to enjoy the game as we intended but there have been difficulties along the way. Over the past few days we've been hard at work to address the most common issues that have popped up. The people on the Hotfix branch have been incredibly helpful in tracking down the Graphics Driver issues and we're now confident in rolling out the fixes at large."

For users with the NVIDIA Graphics cards defined below, that have experienced frequent crashes, we have added a Driver Workaround setting. This setting will be automatically enabled for the affected users and should alleviate the most commonly experienced crashes. May your Pantheons Thrive

Store Quick-Search now includes developer pages and tags, also it will be better at handling of misspelled words. Today, we rolled out an update to the Steam store search to add more ways for players to search. Recently we've noticed more players searching for particular store hubs, tags, or developers so we've updated Steam store search to handle those destinations. For these new results, we'll show a new format with a subtle background generated from images of the most popular games in that result. Let's take a quick look at all the recent search updates...

Search for Developers, Publishers, and Franchises
Additionally, players can now search directly for your developer or publisher if you have set up a homepage. For more about developer and publisher homepages, please see: partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/creator_homepage. Looking for a particular developer or publisher on Steam? Excited about a specific gaming franchise? Now those appear in the quick search results too. Looking for "Bethesda" games? Or perhaps you want to browse all the "Star Wars" or "Final Fantasy" games. Now you can!

The Steamworks Development team has announced some welcome changes to how game trailers get displayed on product pages - users have provided feedback about the frustrating process of having to navigate through lots of videos (as many as 12!) before reaching game screenshots. Valve's storefront UI designers introduced the adjusted system yesterday: "These changes include new logic that determines the order of trailers and screenshots, plus the ability to specify a category for each trailer to show to players." Game developers will face a brand new restriction: "Starting today, a maximum of two trailers can appear in the row of thumbnails to the left of screenshots. Any remaining trailers will be displayed after the screenshots, resulting in a default view for players that always has a mix of screenshots and trailers in view." This a welcome change and effectively ends the frontloaded spamming of trailers in screenshot galleries.

Product page managers will need to be more selective with their choices of headlining footage: "You are welcome to upload as many trailers for your game as you wish, but it is important to select the order of your trailers to prioritize the ones you think will be most useful to potential new customers. You can specify the order of your trailers in the 'Edit Store Page' section of Steamworks, on the 'Trailers' tab...Ideally you'll want to give players a good look at the gameplay of your game in as short a time as possible. We recommend that your first trailer be one that features primarily gameplay, clearly demonstrating what the player will be doing in the game and how they will be interacting with the world you've built. Save your company logos or narrative storylines for further into your trailer once you've gotten the interest of a player.

From May 4th through 15th, owners of Age of Empires IV on Steam will have an opportunity to dive into all the amazing content, updates and changes coming in Season Five! The Age of Empires IV Public Update Preview (PUP) presents an opportunity for our incredible players to get hands-on experience with exciting changes ahead of major updates. They also provide an opportunity to give feedback and help us prepare for upcoming major releases. PUP builds will generally contain new features, content, balance changes and bug fixes.

A New Game Mode, Team Voice Chat, Trade Updates and More!
Among the content highlighted in this PUP is Empire Wars, a new, quick-to-action game mode where players start with a burgeoning empire, ready to dive into combat or advance to the next Age! Players begin the match with a variety of pre-built buildings and villagers already tasked on resource collection. Not only that, but you'll be able to try out three news maps before they officially go live, including Golden Heights, Migration, and Volcanic Island!

Valve has released the tabulated results and statistics of its April Steam Hardware and Software Survey - the key take away from last month's user generated data is that NVIDIA's trusty GeForce GTX 1650 GPU is once again the most popular graphics card. It dethrones last month's winner - the NVIDIA RTX 3060 graphics card which falls to third place where it sits below the second place GTX 1060 GPU. The RTX 3060 experienced an almost 6% decline in usership from the previous month, and the GTX 1650's userbase grew by 2% in the same period of time. It is interesting to note that the entry for the GTX 1650 encompasses both desktop and laptop variants, while the RTX 3060 gets divided into two separate entries on Valve's survey - the desktop version sits at third place and its laptop-oriented sibling trails slightly behind with a placement at position number four. NVIDIA absolutely dominates the field with lots of its budget and midrange cards (across several older generations) - AMD and Intel barely make it into the top 25 with a small sprinkling of iGPUs and one discrete model (Radeon RX 580) placed at position 24.

April's survey shows that Intel processors remain a favorite for many Steam users with a 67.14% share, and AMD follows in second place with a 32.84% share. AMD CPU popularity is on the rise (when compared to previous months) so a more even share of the market could be on the cards, if an upward trend continues. System RAM enthusiasts were upgrading to a smaller degree last month: 52.19% are on 16 GB, and 16.1 percent are on 32 GB - indicating slight declines (from March) of 4.73% and 6.61% respectively. The majority of users prefer to stick with Windows 10 64-bit - that OS has a 61.21% share, but its popularity has dropped by 12.74% within the survey period. Windows 11 64-bit is gaining ground with a 10.98% increase from March to April, and it sits at second place with a 33.39% share of the OS userbase. As always, the results indicated by the monthly Steam Hardware and Software survey are not considered to be pinpoint accurate due to the random nature of user responses, but overall and general trends can be discerned from the data on hand.

Steam Client Beta updates do not normally attract much attention - Valve's iterative patch notes for the digital service application read in a mostly mundane way - but this week's trial system upgrade has turned heads. Valve has managed to introduce some interesting new features with this latest update - the in-game overlay system has been overhauled so users are offered the option to pin related windows over/on top of an active game session. Players are granted multiple options in the adjustment of overlay window opacity levels - so web browsers, document apps and image browsers can be customized to best suit the in-game experience. Users will also be happy to discover that they can now watch their favorite movies, TV shows or streaming platform within the same screen space as their chosen game - no need to minimize and arrange multiple app windows or shift everything across multiple monitor setups. The screenshot manager has been enhanced to a greater degree - Valve states that: "it's responsive, you can choose from large or small thumbnails, view recent screenshots rather than by game, and you can manage online screenshots as well as local screenshots".

A new Notes App has been introduced via the latest Steam Client Beta update - users can now jot down their thoughts and observations during game sessions. Valve boasts that the application offers: "rich text formatting, the ability to have multiple notes per game, and can even be used in offline mode." The blog also provides explanations of other handy features and improvements: "The new toolbar gives you access to anything you may need in the middle of a game - friends chat, achievements progress, guides, discussions, a browser, and more. We've picked a couple windows by default, and you can pick and personalize the pieces of content you'd like to see in your overlay - settings are saved between games. This toolbar can be switched between an icon view and a list view in Settings. The Game Overview is your one-stop shop to see what's going on with the game since you last played it. For example, it shows what achievements you have in progress, which friends are playing the same game, top guides, news, and more."

Following the recent block of the Activision-Blizzard merger with Microsoft by the UK regulatory body, Microsoft is partnering with cloud gaming services to bring extra assurance to regulators that the merger will not harm any segment. Today, Microsoft's Vice Chain and President, Brad Smith, published a Tweet that highlighted the latest deal with Nware, a Spanish company providing cloud PCs to gamers that can stream games from Steam, EGS, and Ubisoft Connect accounts. The Tweet noted that "Microsoft and European cloud gaming platform Nware have signed a 10-year agreement to stream PC games built by Xbox on its platform, as well as Activision Blizzard titles after the acquisition closes. While it's still early for the emerging cloud segment in gaming, this new partnership combined with our other recent commitments will make more popular games available on more cloud game streaming services than they are today."

Revival: Recolonization is a 4x strategy game set on a post-apocalyptic version of Earth, where the terrain and rules of engagement can change during key moments. Players will lead a fledgling band of people as they rise up, improve their technologies - using all manner of weapons, from ballista to war elephants - and lead Humanity to re-take the Earth from an insane AI.

Revival: Recoloniation is the first entry in the Revival franchise to appear on PC. The first two entries debuted on feature phones. Revival: Recolonization, will enter Early Access on June 28, 2023, on Steam.

Secrets of Gloomrot is a free V Rising expansion coming May 17th. Enter a massive new zone with two unique areas twisted in the pursuit of cruel science and raise your multi-level castle. Navigate polluted valleys and lightning-scorched highlands to face the mutated experiments and mechanical wonders spawned from the twisted imaginations of the Trancendum. Travel to the heights of Gloomrot and face their greatest creation - the ultimate weapon of war.

Delve Into the Realm of the Brilliantly Insane
A little taste of what is to come this May 17th, when V Rising will be updating with its first major content patch. Leap into battle upon your vampiric steed to cut down your foes. Travel new lands harrowed by experiments and pollution. Face new foes with new tools at your disposal. Seize the power of lightning, and meet science with Vampire sword and sorcery when you tangle with the master of Gloomrot, Doctor Henry Blackbrew.

The Steam Deck is a hit with enthusiasts who require a gaming fix on the move, and Valve has observed its handheld getting revamped heavily by the modification community - but a new adaptation takes the pint-sized PC onto the real battlefield. The GamingOnLinux site yesterday picked up on emerging details from the Ukraine frontline - TDF Media group has shared photos and videos of an automated gun turret system dubbed "Saber" that can be operated remotely. The Steam Deck has somehow become the preferred control method - its on-screen UI, trackpads, analog sticks and button layout factor into the gun turret's operation. A reader has informed me that Valve's hardware is not officially available for sale in the region, so the military must be sourcing units from a grey/dark market source.

Sergey Mohov, lead gameplay designer at Remedy Entertainment, reposted some of TDF Media's photos on his Twitter account earlier this week, and added that "this automatic turret is the best use of Steam Deck I've seen so far." The Territorial Defense Force organization has described the turret (translated) thusly: "Saber is a Ukrainian automated remote-controlled gun turret designed for stationary installation on static objects or moving vehicles. The Saber system's co-ordination is done via a remote control, camera and monitor - which allows combat from up to 500 m from the rig, while preserving the operator's life. This combat platform can be installed in a stationary (capacity) at checkpoints, border and other zones - it is even able to defeat low-flying enemy drones. The platform is flexible enough to accommodate any light anti-infantry or anti-tank weapon weapon - a good example being a Kalashnikov machine gun."

Cult of the Lamb's first major content update is OUT NOW! The Lamb must keep their Cult flourishing, their Followers faithful, and their power unchallenged as they crusade in this free content expansion, Relics of the Old Faith. It adds brand new ways to spread the gospel of the Cult of the Lamb with powerful new abilities, exciting new characters, and thrilling new challenges.

Relics of the Old Faith adds huge new content, replayability and many features. Relics of the Old Faith is an ENORMOUS free update to Cult of the Lamb. We've listened to many of your requests and have been working since launch to add everything we possibly could. There's so much that it can't fit into one News post, but we're going to try…

Ubisoft is slowly migrating availability of its flagship games over to the Steam store, and gaming fans will be happy to find out about this move. A lot of the French video game publisher's popular titles (on PC) have been locked to their own Connect service and the Epic Games Store. Far Cry-series fans on the PC platform having been shouting and complaining about one particular entry being tied to the pair of e-shops since launching back in October 2021. That timed deal between Ubisoft and Epic Games is soon to expire, and Far Cry 6 will become available via Steam on May 11.

Ubisoft implemented a reversal of releasing games on Steam back in 2019, a decision that attracted almost instant negative feedback from PC Gamers. The Division 2 was announced as being the 2019 headliner for release on Ubisoft Connect and Epic Games Store, and (at the time) other upcoming titles would follow the same path. Murmurs of a possible return to Steam emerged in late 2022, and shortly thereafter Ubisoft proceeded to rollout big franchise titles on that platform, including Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Immortals Fenyx Rising. The latest batch to get the Steam store release day treatment are (the aforementioned) Far Cry 6 on May 11th, Riders Republic on June 8th, Rainbow Six Extraction on June 15th, and finally Monopoly Madness on June 22nd.

At the turn of the 1980s, most PC adventure games were played using only the keyboard. In those days, adventure games didn't use action menus like more modern games, but simply presented the player with a command line where they could freely input text to decide the actions that characters would take and proceed through the story. Free text input systems like these allowed players to feel a great deal of freedom. However, they did come with one common source of frustration: players knowing what action they wanted to perform but being unable to do so because they could not find the right wording. This problem was caused by the limitations of PC performance and NLP technology of the time.

40 years have passed since then, and PC performance has drastically improved, as have the capabilities of NLP technology. Using "The Portopia Serial Murder Case" as a test case, we'd like to show you the capabilities of modern NLP and the impact it can have on adventure games, as well as deepen your understanding of NLP technologies.

Sometimes Dota gameplay patches are small. Sometimes they can get pretty big. This one... is huge. It's got all the things you were probably expecting - balance changes, new items, hero reworks, UI improvements. But we also included a few changes you probably weren't expecting, like a new hero attribute type and - brace yourself - the map is now 40% bigger.

But all these new gameplay features won't matter if the match you get into isn't a good one. So we're also shipping some much-needed matchmaking improvements. Excited? Confused? Head on over to the New Frontiers update page for all the details. But don't head over just yet, read this sentence first: The Berlin major is on April 26th, and Fantasy/Player Cards are now available. Okay, now go. Here's the link again.

Team Reptile brings you Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, a future world from the mind of Dion Koster where self-styled graffiti crews equipped with personal boostpacks are battling each other for control of the streets. Start your own cypher and dance, paint graffiti, collect beats, combo your tricks and face off with the cops to stake your claim to the sprawling metropolis of New Amsterdam.

Red is a graffiti writer who lost his head and instead has an AI robohead. In search of his roots he joins the Bomb Rush Crew, Tryce and Bel, who are aiming to go All City. Together they slowly discover who it was that cut off his head and how deep Red's human side is linked to the graffiti world. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is 1 second per second of advanced funkstyle. Battle rival crews and dispatch military police to conquer the five boroughs of New Amsterdam. Become All City.

Greetings brave Teslamancers. After years of work, sweat, caffeine and plenty of fond memories, we're finally able to say that Teslagrad 2 is available for play! Come, discover Wyrmheim. Uncover its secrets, meet the locals and embark on your brand-new adventure! Challenges and secrets abound, but we're sure you'll face them with the boldness and gusto of a true Teslamancer! Now, there are so many we would like to give thanks to. Family and friends that have kept us safe and sane through the bad times, as well as the good. And, of course, a HUGE thank you to YOU. The Fans.

For your patience, passion and support. Your continued excitement has kept us going and striving towards ever-great heights. Looking back at what we've been able to build, we're thrilled to finally have you experience it as well, and join us at the top of the Tower! We've kept you for long enough. Strap on your boots, and face the world of Teslagrad once again. Let us know what you discover. Regards, Your Rain Games and Modus Games teams.

New store page, new trailer... new EVERYTHING for our upcoming puzzle-adventure game Firmament...Firmament will release on May 18th! Firmament is a new puzzle-adventure game by the legendary game studio behind the best-selling games Myst and Riven. Featuring deep storytelling and world-building, discover the story of this seemingly abandoned world as you explore and unlock the mysteries of 3 unique Realms… and beyond!

EXPLORE THE WORLD
Featuring a unique steampunk aesthetic, Firmament invites you to explore the legendary deep world-building Cyan Worlds is known for. Firmament is a fantastic visual feast, with thrilling new sights to see around every corner. At the same time, the world of Firmament feels completely plausible; as though it were constructed with a bigger purpose in mind… A purpose you will be compelled to discover as you play.