Some of you may recognize the name Jon St. John. Yeah, he has a badass name in real life, but he’s also done voice acting for one well-known and incredibly delayed badass: Duke Nukem. Well, Jon St. John has a new project, and one that could be of interest to LoL players. He’s doing voice acting for Valve’s version of DotA.

I don’t really have any details, and frankly, the DotA moniker comes from JSJ, not from Valve. What we do know is that Valve hired IceFrog (the mind behind DotA (along with Zileas)) to make something to please DotA fans. Jon St. John posted to his Twitter account this weekend that he has been doing voice work for DotA at Valve Software. I’m not sure why he would call out the name of the game without hearing it from Valve, and if they didn’t give him the go ahead, you can bet he wouldn’t be talking about it.

This doesn’t necessarily mean a whole lot for the LoL community, but it could be bad news for any HoN fans out there. I’ve played a bit of HoN and been completely unimpressed, so it’s not like the name DotA will kill a game like LoL. It could kill HoN, though, especially with the kind of money Valve has. What could be a problem for LoL is just that – the money.

Valve could very easily sweep in on LoL territory with more bank, more developers, but more importantly, more support. With better server uptime and the bankroll to back a quicker development cycle, Valve could make a dent in the LoL player base. That’s not to say Valve will do that, just that it could with the resources it has. Valve was notoriously slow with some of the TF2 developments, though, even if TF2 has a massive player base. Let’s also not forget that IceFrog did work on HoN, and we can all see how well that’s going.

In short, I think it’s totally possible that Valve is working up a DotA clone and it has the potential to make a bit of a stink for the big players in the MOBA world. There are so many variables, though, that Valve has a long way to go before

At this year’s GDC, Gabe Newell was honored for being a pioneer in the field of gaming. That’s an indisputable title for a guy at the helm of one of the most successful development houses of all time. Valve is responsible for classics like Half-Life and modern marvels Portal and Team Fortress 2. Kotaku caught up with Gabe after his presentation to find out what he thought about Pokémon, what it means to be a pioneer, and how he sees the future of gaming.

“One of the things we’ve found is we’ve been doing some research into biometrics. We have a criminal psychologist on staff now. We’re finding that the impact of what we do – the emotional component of it – can be improved pretty dramatically by measuring people’s arousal states. By looking at how their pupils are dilated, by tracking where their gaze is, you know, doing skin galvanic response. Rather than having an experience that’s supposed to work for everybody, you can design, you can react to how the player is feeling, which is what’s driving those biometric measures.”

While it’s a little weird to think of a criminal psychologist as the appropriate individual to study us gamers, it’s also kinda cool to think of these tailored experiences coming soon. He goes on to talk about the changes to CPU architecture and how that will affect games, but the really interesting stuff was in the biometrics. I am curious, though, if Newell means we’ll see tools for measuring biometrics at the player level, giving developers the chance to custom tailor each individual experience, not just tailored to the gaming demographic. Maybe there is a point to the Wii Vitality Sensor after all.

Source: Kotaku

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.