'There is Only War,' The massive update for Dawn of War II will first be available as an open Beta to all owners of Dawn of War II. Players can now participate in the Beta through their Steam client. Details below.

Launch Steam and go to File > Settings

On the 'Account' tab of the Settings window, under the 'Beta participation' section, click the button that says "Change..."

Select the Dawn of War 2 Beta from the drop down list on the pop-up window.

Click OK and you'll be prompted to restart Steam.

When Steam starts back up, your copy of Dawn of War II will automatically update to include the beta content.

Launch the game to enter the beta.

Included in this update:
 

Significant balance update to the multiplayer game

Battle over eight new multiplayer maps.

Edit, create, and add new maps to multiplayer games with the map editor World Builder.

Watch custom multiplayer games as a spectator with the new Observer and Referee options.

Plus, improvements in performance, user interface, audio, and artificial intelligence

Read the full release notes here

PC Gamer's Game of the Year, Fallout 3, is 50% off this weekend on Steam.

Capcom has executed a perfect hurricane kick, landing Street Fighter IV, the latest in the legendary fighting series, on Steam.

Street Fighter IV is now available for pre-purchase at a 10% discount, until the game's release on July 7th.

The highly-detailed action game ARMA 2 is now available worldwide via Steam.

ARMA II boasts the most realistic combat environment ever, modeling real world ballistics & round deflection, materials penetration, features a realtime day/night cycle and dynamic wind, weather and environmental effects. Play the campaign missions solo, in cooperative mode or join in massive multiplayer battles with up to 50 players.

(Bellevue, WA - June 23rd, 2009) - Valve Corporation, one of the video game industry's leading entertainment software and technology companies, announced today that they have released support for the Novint Falcon for several of their best selling games.

The Novint Falcon is an entirely new type of interface for PC gaming. Essentially a small robot, the Falcon lets players feel high-fidelity three-dimensional touch in enabled games.

Valve's best selling game franchises, which account for over 30 million retail units sold worldwide and over 80% of the PC online action market, include Half-Life®, which has won over 50 Game of the Year Awards, Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike® Source, Portal® and Team Fortress® 2. Valve is also the developer of leading-edge technologies, including the Source® game engine and Steam®, a leading platform for digital content distribution with over 20 million registered users. Today, an update was distributed through Steam adding Novint Falcon compatibility for customers of The Orange Box which includes Half-Life 2: Episodes 1 and 2 (the original Half-Life 2 is playable with the Falcon through a download available from Novint), Portal, and Team Fortress 2. Additionally Valve will soon release support for other leading titles including Left 4 Dead, Day of Defeat Source, and Counter-Strike: Source®. Using the Falcon, players feel realistic weapon recoil, enemy attacks, vehicle movements, and interactions with the environment. Novint has also released its must have Pistol Grip accessory, which replaces the standard Falcon grip to create an even more immersive FPS gaming experience.

Customers interested in purchasing a Falcon to use with Valve's games can do so at Novint's site, https://home.novint.com/store/promote.php. Novint is currently offering a special Orange Box bundle, priced at $149, for one week only in celebration of the launch. The bundle includes the award winning Novint Falcon, the pistol grip, the Orange Box, and over $150 of additional software.

"We're very excited to partner with a company so dominant in the PC game industry," said Novint CEO, Tom Anderson. "Their sustained excellence, best-selling games, enormous user base, and forward looking vision make them standard bearers for the industry. We feel Falcon support for their online games in particular could be our first real killer app, which is an exciting milestone."

This weekend only, Empire: Total War™ and Empire: Total War™ Special Forces Edition are 50% off on Steam. PC Gamer calls it "One of the most playable, important and accomplished games ever created." This award-winning game from Sega and The Creative Assembly includes single and multiplayer modes, and the most requested addition to the acclaimed Total War franchise - full Naval combat. Dominate the 18th century on land and sea! Make Empire: Total War or Empire: Total War Special Forces Edition yours while you save 50% this weekend on Steam.

One of the reasons I found Uncharted: Drake's Fortune so charming was the clumsiness with which Drake performed many of his actions. When running, he'd stumble over rocks. Diving for cover, he looks uneasy throwing himself against the wall. He looks uncomfortable being shot at, even when he's behind cover, ducking his shoulders and covering his head. Blind-firing even looks like a genuine attempt to take pot-shots without exposing himself, as one arm gets throw on top of the wall with the weapon in tack, the trigger fires and his aiming sucks. Then there's a certain clunkiness to the weapons. The sound of the AK-47 is heavy, clatters and creaks, while the M4 has a far more certain, militaristic feel (though these only come into play during the later part of the game). Heck, even the climbing has a certain "oh God, I hope I make it and find grip" sort of feel about it.