Radeon Owners Get Free Valve Games

Just in from Valve:

Valve just announced that for a limited time that all ATI owners can download a free copy of Half-Life 2: Lost Coast and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch through Steam. The software will automatically check to see if you qualify. If you already have an ATI Video Card you download the free games here

In related news, Shacknews says:

Steam will be included with the ATI Catalyst driver and software suit until early 2008 and ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT owners will, upon release, receive Team Fortress 2, Portal, and Half-Life 2: Episode Two through Valve's content delivery application.

I haven't had a chance to test any of this but it is great to see ATI and Valve working out a great deal to give out my favorite LAN party game. In my opinion, ATI's plans to bundle Steam with their drivers is good and bad. It will make it easier for new gamers to get their free games but for the rest of us, it will just bloat our drivers. I hope they made it an optional download that can be triggered from the driver installer.

My favorite LAN Party Game

If you look at the pictures of my past events, it is easy to tell what my favorite game is: Half-life 2: Deathmatch.

The game is cheap to buy on Steam (it is only $9.99) and its also available as part of Valve's Temporary Tournament Steam Accounts if you wish to provide the game free at your event. It is relatively easy to learn and the gaming action is non stop. If you die, you respawn in a couple of seconds rather than have to wait till the next round starts like in Counter-Strike. It is great fun to yell at the person who just threw a radiator at you only to return the favor a few seconds later. It can get to be very competitive as the final seconds of the round approach and there is a three way tie going on only to be broken by the guy sitting next to you. For veterans, there are plenty of great community maps to play on. My only grip is that the game doesn't have any bots for n00bs to play against or fill servers with when there is only one player is on the server. This game has been the center of most of my LAN Parties because of the number of people who enjoy playing it. You can't beet the fun of creaming the next to with a toilet or making someone fly with the RPG.

Over all this is the one game I will always host at my events.

Top Half-life 2: Deathmatch Maps

I've gone through 200 maps and I've looked them over and scored them. I didn't follow a rubric but the ones I scored high tended to be unique, fit in with the half-life universe and be fun to play on.

The whole list is posted in a Google spreadsheet- original copy and an editable one. Feel free to add your ratings to the discussion panel and I will add them to the chart or I may even invite you to collaborate with me on it.

Eventually I will release a map pack with all of my favorite maps.