As if the news of Steam coming to Macs weren’t enough, fanboys can rejoice today for more great news from Valve. As the latest issue of Game Informer confirms, Portal 2 is coming and it’s coming to Macs.

The PAL Game Network has scans of the cover story from Game Informer, which shows the basic info about the game – developer, release window, platforms, etc. There isn’t much more information, other than the fact that the game will be incredible. If you haven’t played the original Portal just go buy the Orange Box. It’s easily one of the most enjoyable games I’ve ever played, no lie (the cake on the other hand…). And it all started as a trial.

Luckily for us, Portal 2 will be a full-length game, set to release this fall.

Portal caught an update on Steam earlier this week, giving the game an extended ending and teasing some details from the previously announced sequel. Well, it wasn’t officially announced but it was definitely confirmed.

Hidden in the update were all sorts of little clues, the type that keep forum rats busy slaving over cryptic messages to find ASCII art. A lot of the “clues” were actually little jokes from the series, but some of the messages led to ASCII images and several messages from the founder of Aperture, Cave Johnson.

The Steam forums are burning the midnight oil to figure out the meaning behind the messages. I’ll give you a hint, guys – Valve will tell us more soon. Until then you’re going to be looking at a bunch of ambiguous clues pretending you can make sense of them.

Fanboys rejoice! It looks like Steam is finally joining the cult. Six media outlets were given teasers today, all of which came from Valve with some kind of Mac theme. There’s the heavy pictured at right in all his iPod glory. There was also an image of Gordon Freeman with a Mac logo on his chest and a little homage to my favorite Valve game, Portal.

As more consumers consider the Mac alternative to PCs, we’ll see a lot more of this. Gaming is extremely lucrative and publishers aren’t going to stand by and watch as a simple platform choice steals away potential customers. Steam for the Mac isn’t a world-shattering release, though. Will it be a nice choice for Mac users? Of course. But we’ll probably only see Valve titles in the immediate futures, and a lot of the smaller games that make Steam so great won’t make it over for several years, if ever.

This is a step in the right direction, though. Few things would please me as much as playing Portal 2 on my lappy during a flight.

I can’t imagine why this would ever be the case. I mean, the original Bioshock is like $15 most places, often less. Why you still wouldn’t have the game, or haven’t played through the game, is totally beyond me. I suppose it is possible, though, so this deal is still worth mentioning.

When you pre-order Bioshock 2 from Direct2Drive they’ll throw in a copy of the original for free. You can get the same deal on Steam if you prefer the Valve method. Hell, even if you have the first this is still a great deal. Install the original on a friend’s machine who just refused to buy it.

Bioshock 2 releases Tuesday, along with Dante’s Inferno.

Yes, the end of that title is “highlander.” That’s the new mode that made its way into the latest Team Fortress 2 update. The update also includes a bunch of bug fixes and some map edits.

For highlander mode each team can consist of up to 9 players. For each team there can only be one of each different class. I really like the idea. Part of the intrigue of the class system is feeling like you have a special role that others can’t quite perform as well. What better way to showcase it than making each player truly the only one.

Among the other changes is cloud support for key bindings and custom spray tags.

The Soldier/Demoman war is almost over for TF2 fans, which means we’re that much closer to getting the new weapons and achievements for those classes. The total frag count is over the 11 million mark, the two sides separated by just 14,792 kills.

In honor of the beginning of the end, Valve has revealed the new weapons. For Soldiers, it’s The Equalizer, a melee pickaxe that does more damage the more damage you’ve taken. As the little newspaper clipping says it, “Get close enough to death and you will become Death himself.” Cool.

The Demoman gets a new gun in the form of The Scottish Resistance. This new sticky launcher allows you to set more bombs, detonate enemy bombs, and set off your own bombs in clusters. The extra utility means the bombs do a little less damage, and the primer is longer – 0.4 seconds – so you’ll need some careful planning to make this thing work. It does turn the Demoman into one hell of a defensive tool, though.

With all the hype around Modern Warfare 2, you might have forgotten that the Left 4 Dead 2 launch is right around the corner as well. Sure it’s not going to break those major records that MW2 likely will, but it’s probably going to be awesome. If you’re a PC player, take my reminder and go get to downloading. If you’ve pre-ordered the zombie splatterfest, you can pre-load the game up to the November 17th launch.

Why, you ask? For one, what on earth else does your computer do while you sleep. Two, because the game is almost seven gigs. That’s going to be a long download on launch day. Actually, it’s probably going to be a long download this week, too, but at least you won’t be waiting for hours while your friends are carving zombie face and screaming for your company over Vent. i

You’ll also get 10% off when you pre-order on Steam, along with a special hat for Team Fortress 2. Really, there isn’t a reason not to pre-order.

As the holidays inch ever closer it’s nice to be up on all the latest deals. Some of them are even good enough to get a little something for yourself.

For starters, Target is offering the buy-2-get-1 deal that’s been so popular lately on Wii games. Unfortunately it only applies to games (no accessories this time around) but it is for every game. Get yourself some Wii Sports Resort and throw the other two at your brother/son/roommate. No sense sending them out of the house, right? Sale starts tomorrow.

Steam’s offering a chance to play through COD4 before the release of Modern Warfare 2 drops. The old-school version is a whopping 40% off retail, down to $23.99, up until Monday. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t played the game, but if you lost your discs or something, at least Steam is here for you.

If you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em. That’s Gamestop’s new take on digital distribution anyway. At an analyst only conference this week, the used game/accessory retailer “detailed” its plans for entering digital distribution. I say “detailed” because the company’s “plan” is, ah, underdeveloped to say the least.

For now Gamestop plans to: 1 – increase in-store sales of online currency cards for online game purchases, 2 – make more games available for digital distro, and 3 – make a “strategic investment” in the market or buy an existing digital distro house. Really smashing ideas guys. Now what’s the actual plan.

Obviously the most concrete idea is number three, but that’s also the hardest to accomplish. Both Valve and IGN (News Corp.) would be reluctant to part with Steam or Direct2Drive. As for other distro houses, nothing else is nearly so well established, and that would mean competing directly with two established and extremely popular alternatives. Back to the drawing board, fellas.

There are a couple reasons to break down, buy some Half-Life, and lock yourself in your room and play the series through this weekend. The first is that Gordon Freeman was named “All-Time Greatest Video Game Hero” by the gaming community at Gamestop this week with 55.8% of the vote (which is more than it takes to be president! (decade-old jokes are so good!)). The other reason is that all the Half-Life games are on sale for 55.8% off on Steam in honor of the…honor.

So if you’re a little bored, or if you’ve never played Counter-Strike for some ridiculous reason, get yourself some Half-Life for a decent deal. It’s probably better than the ways you were planning to spend this weekend, anyway.