You can now sign up to test Steam for Linux, with Valve announcing an open Beta of the client. Valve is looking for users with generally high experience with Linux, so don't expect the Beta to be click-and-run. Interested users with Ubuntu 12.04 (and above) can sign up here. Steam for Linux targets Ubuntu, and the company plans to launch the platform with Left 4 Dead 2 with SteamPlay enabled, porting other Valve titles later.

Valve's hit online multiplayer game, Left 4 Dead 2, which was recently ported to Ubuntu along with the Steam client, is found to play faster on the platform than even Windows. The game generates higher frame-rates on Ubuntu with the new OpenGL renderer for Source engine than the Direct3D renderer it uses on Windows.

The disclosure comes as part of Valve's ongoing efforts to optimize the Source engine to the Linux platform, following which, it plans to port more of its game franchises, such as Half Life, Counter Strike, Team Fortress, and Portal. The games will be available on Ubuntu with SteamPlay, allowing users who already own a license for the Windows or Mac OS X versions to simply download and play the game on Ubuntu, without any purchases.

Valve announced porting of its Steam content-distribution platform, Source game engine, and the smash-hit multi-player game title Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2), to Ubuntu (Linux). The port isn't exactly straightforward, as code has to be rewritten for OpenGL. Valve already accomplished most of this, with its Mac OS X port, which uses the same API.

Valve is targeting just one distribution at this time, to minimize "optimization" overheads. Derivatives such as Mint could run the platform just fine. Valve's immediate goals are to get the Steam client to work on Ubuntu with full functionality, launching Steam for Linux with L4D2 (thanks to SteamPlay, gamers with L4D2 on Windows can play it on Ubuntu without additional purchases); and optimizing L4D2 to get additional frame-rates on Ubuntu. Valve is also work to get its other titles ported to Ubuntu.

There is light in the end of the tunnel for proponents of a native-Linux version of Valve's Steam platform, as a Steam for Linux is just months away, according to a Phoronix report. Linux has been hiring developers with experience in Linux OpenGL applications for some time now, and the gearwheels at Valve have been able to drive out an early version of Left 4 Dead 2 that was seen running native on Linux (Ubuntu 11.10), without translation layers such as Wine, utilizing the OpenGL API, with the ICD provided by AMD Catalyst. Although first denied in 2010, Valve is back to the idea of Steam for Linux, thanks to its "flat" company structure that lacks a hierarchy. Following the footsteps of Steam for Mac, Valve could port some of its games to Linux, and give the client SteamPlay capability.

Razer, the world leader in high-performance gaming hardware, together with Sixense Entertainment, the leader in precision motion technology, announce fully integrated motion gaming support for Valve's game titles including Left 4 Dead 2, Half-Life 2, and Team Fortress 2 using the Razer Hydra motion sensing controller. Future Valve titles Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will also support full motion play with the Razer Hydra.

Additionally, Sixense and Valve have now integrated Sixense MotionCreator 2.0 software with Valve's Steam gaming platform, enabling backward compatibility for motion gaming with the Razer Hydra for over 250 of the most popular titles on Steam. Now, Steam users will receive automatic motion control updates for current and future game titles, and a new in-game overlay allows gamers to view control maps for the Razer Hydra as they play.

Very quietly Microsoft has released two new patches available for the Bulldozer platform. According to the AMD blog these patches seem to offer little more then a 10% boost but the do improve over all performance. This is what Adam Kozak a product marketing manager at AMD had to say,

"Some of you may remember that AMD FX processors use a unique dual-core module architecture codenamed "Bulldozer", which current versions of Windows 7 were not specifically architected to utilize. In essence, for those with an AMD FX-8150 Processor, for example, Windows 7 sees the eight available cores and randomly assigns threads to them.

In initial testing of the upcoming Windows 8 operating system, we've seen performance improvements of up to 10% in some applications, when compared to Windows 7. This is because the system correctly recognizes the AMD FX processor architecture and cores. Thanks to close collaboration between Microsoft and AMD, Microsoft recently completed back-porting some of the Windows 8 scheduler code for AMD FX processors into a hotfix for Windows 7."

NVIDIA today released its first WHQL-signed 270 Series GeForce software suite. The package provides the latest driver software for GeForce discrete, integrated, and notebook GPUs, ION GPUs, GeForce HDMI audio, and the latest stable releases of NVIDIA PhysX, and NVIDIA 3DVision. Version 270.61 WHQL packs official support for the recently released GeForce GTX 590, GTX 550 Ti, GTX 560 Ti, supermassive performance increases (such as 516% in Dragon Age 2 (GTX 580 SLI 2560x1600 8xAA/16xAF Very High, SSAO on)) specific to GeForce 400 and 500 series; and of course, a stable version of NVIDIA's driver auto-update software.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 270.61 WHQL.

A list of changes follows.

AMD kept up with its monthly driver update cycle, and released the ATI Catalyst 10.8 software suite. The software installs the latest WHQL-signed drivers for ATI Radeon GPUs, AMD Chipsets, and other ATI Multimedia products. The new version packs a set of game-specific performance improvements, and a few feature updates. To begin with, Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Stormrise, each got GPU configuration specific, mostly single-digit performance increments.

New features include full-support for the OpenGL ES 2.0 API, greater control over video quality by means of a checkbox control from Catalyst Control Center. This is particularly of importance, as AMD seems to have taken notes from the press coverage, such as our Video Enhancement Quality Tests. There are image-quality improvements for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, that includes anti-aliasing support. An update also claims to greatly improve overall performance of Eyefinity setups that use 4-way/Quad CrossFireX (or CrossFire involving four GPUs).

DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 10.8 WHQL for Windows 7/Vista 64-bit, Windows 7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit

A detailed list of important updates follows.

Valve announced today it will bring Steam, Valve's gaming service, and Source, Valve's gaming engine, to the Mac. Steam and Valve's library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April. "As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services."

"Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients, are very excited about adding support for the Mac," said Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve. "Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play."

AMD today released the ATI Catalyst 10.1 driver suite, this year's first. The suite provides drivers and system software for ATI Radeon products (including Radeon HD 5900, 5800, 5700, 5600, HD 4000 series), AMD 7-series chipsets, All-in-Wonder, and Theater multimedia products. The new set of drives brings in application-specific performance improvements, OS and application bug-fixes, and new features. Notable ones are listed below:

• Left 4 Dead 2 - Overall performance improves as much as 3% on ATI Radeon HD 5700 series products and ATI Radeon HD 5800 series products
• Crysis - Performance improves as much as 3% on ATI Radeon HD 5700 series products and as much as 4% on ATI Radeon HD 5800 series products

DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 10.1 WHQL for Windows 7/Vista 32-bit | Windows 7/Vista 64-bit | Windows XP 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit

For a complete list of changes specific to your OS, refer to the Release Notes document.

Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced details and timing for the demo of its upcoming zombie thriller, Left 4 Dead 2.

The Left 4 Dead 2 demo will feature gameplay taken from "The Parish" campaign, set in the New Orleans French Quarter. Playable by 1 to 4 players over local or Internet connections on both the Xbox 360 and PC (with two-player split screen available on the Xbox 360), the demo features all the new boss infected zombies and all the new melee weapons included in the full product.

Valve, creator of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Scavenge, the fourth game mode to be included in its upcoming zombie thriller, Left 4 Dead 2.

Scavenge mode challenges players to compete in round-based games of up to 8 players (Survivors vs. Infected). The Survivors must battle both the Infected and the clock as they collect gas cans to refuel a generator located in each map. Every can the Survivors pour into the generator scores their team a point and adds time to the clock.

On defense, the Infected team plays as the boss Infected (including the new Spitter, Jockey, and Charger). They must keep the Survivors from fueling the generator by attacking them, destroying the gas cans, or running out the clock. During a round, each team gets an opportunity to play both sides, with the round going to whichever team successfully delivers the most cans.