Released for iPad yesterday, The Final Hours of Portal 2 is an inside look into one of gaming’s most loved developers, Valve. Told by GTTV frontman Geoff Keighley, The Final Hours begins at Portal 2 writer Erik Wolpaw’s house in the early hours of a February morning and takes us on an engrossing journey through the development and birth of Portal and its highly anticipated sequel, Portal 2.

The Final Hours of Portal 2 takes you deep within the top-secret offices of Valve, creators of Half-Life, for an unvarnished look at the creative process behind the new video game Portal 2. Journalist Geoff Keighley was granted unprecedented “fly on the wall” access to Valve over the past three years to create this staggering 15,000 word multimedia experience. From the hush-hush Portal prequel that was shelved to the last minute scramble to complete the game’s story, The Final Hours of Portal 2 is a gripping and dramatic story brought to life by exclusive photos, videos, interviews, interactive experiences, and other surprises.

While the piece (a fantastic bit of journalism might I add) could stand alone on Keighley’s blog, it’s the sheer quality of the app, designed by the brilliant minds at Joe Zeff Design, that makes the reading experience such an enjoyable and immersive experience. Following the likes of Wired and The Daily on the iPad, The Final Hours not only tells a tale with words but imagery, video, and interaction that brings the story to life across the screen — dare I say more so than anything I’ve seen on the iPad to date.

Geoff already earned my respect after the Mass Effect fiasco, though at times (and I’m guilty of this) it’s easy to forget the guy’s a hardcore gamer. Truth is, he does it for the love, just like a lot of us, and for that I have nothing but respect for the man, especially when he pumps out content of this quality.

Put simply, The Final Hours is a great showpiece for the iPad. So even if you’re not a fan of the game, I’d recommend giving it a look anyway. After all, this is the space in which the iPad shines so well in.

You can grab The Final Hours of Portal 2 for the small price of £1.19/$1.99 in the App Store now. You can also check out a full list of what the app includes on the app’s official website. It’s worth every penny if you ask me!

Note: I would hold off reading it if you’ve yet to finish Portal 2 due to spoilers. If you have finished it though I’d highly recommend The Final Hours. I’d even go as far as to call it the perfect accompanying piece to Portal 2 — you can go ahead and quote me on that.

So here’s one surprise we didn’t see coming. As you know by now, Gabe Newell’s been pretty outspoken when speaking about the PlayStation 3, so it shocked us when he took the stage at Sony’s E3 briefing to revise his views on the company’s home console:

I’ve been pretty outspoken in my comments about the current generation of game consoles. So I’d really like to thank everyone at Sony for their gracious hospitality and for not repeatedly punching me in the face.

Praising the open nature of Sony’s console, he then went on to announce Portal 2 with Steamworks support for the PlayStation 3, stating it would be the best version on ANY console – take THAT Microsoft! Portal 2′s official trailer followed the announcement, check out the trailer here.

She’s back! For those upset about the recent Portal 2 delay, this is for you.

The wait is finally over and Steam for Mac (after a small delay) has launched alongside 60+ “Steam Play” titles – impressive, huh?

The now popular service launched this afternoon for the Mac and allows users to buy, try and play games, as well as stay connected with friends, unlock in-game achievements and all other novelties associated with a modern gaming platform nowadays. Launch titles and more after the jump.

Exclusive to the PC since 2004, the move is seen as a huge leap for the Mac, and I’m interested to see what both companies (Valve and Apple) do with it.

To tie in with the release of Steam, Valve are offering up Portal for free (PC included) as part of their launch promotion until May 24th, and in my opinion games don’t get much more perfect than that – so make sure you check it out, after all, it is free!

LAUNCH TITLES:

And Yet It Moves
Atlantis Sky Patrol
Bejeweled 2 Deluxe
Bob Came in Pieces
Bookworm Deluxe
Braid
Brainpipe
Chocolatier: Decadence by Design
Chuzzle Deluxe
City of Heroes: Architect Edition
Civilization IV: The Complete Edition
Cooking Dash
Diaper Dash
The Dig
Diner Dash: Hometown Hero
DinerTown Detective Agency
DinerTown Tycoon
Dream Chronicles: The Chosen Child
Escape Rosecliff Island
Fairway Solitaire
Fitness Dash
Football Manager 10
Galcon Fusion
Gemini Lost
Guns of Icarus
Hotel Dash Suite Success
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
KrissX
Loom
Luxor
Luxor 3
Luxor: Mahjong
Machinarium
Mahjong Roadshow
Max and the Magic Marker
My Tribe
The Nightshift Code
Nightshift Legacy: The Jaguar’s Eye
Parking Dash
Peggle Deluxe
Peggle Nights
Portal
Professor Fizzwizzle and the Molten Mystery
Quantz
Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse
Tales of Monkey Island Season 1
Toki Tori
Torchlight
Trijinx: A Kristine Kross Mystery
Unwell Mel
Valarie Porter and the Scarlett Scandal
Wandering Willows
Wedding Dash 2: Rings Around the World
World of Goo
Zenerchi
Zuma Deluxe

With Steam for the Mac still a week away, freelance designer Sebastiaan de With has taken it upon himself to offer up a redesign – a damn-near beautiful one if you ask me! Comparison shots after the jump.

By now we’ve all seen the beta running on the Mac, and while that alone is exciting I can’t help but feel underwhelmed by the Windows-esque UI. On the other hand Sebastiaan’s concept would fit beautifully, feeling right at home with the rest of my Mac apps.

The good news is that he’s thinking of sending the concept off to Valve. Knowing Gabe Newell, if he decides to, there’s a huge chance of something happening. Let’s make it work Valve!

In the meantime feel free to grab his Steam replacement icon from his blog ready for the launch next week.

There was a ton of information flowing from X10 and we’re just now catching up on everything, putting it into perspective and marking our calendars. One of the biggest announcements was the surplus of Left 4 Dead (the original and Left 4 Dead 2) content that is on the way. Let’s break everything down and try and get a feel for what Valve has in store for the future.

The Big News: L4D2 get its first DLC pack, “The Passing.” Set in rural Georgia, “The Passing” will see the familiar four survivors from L4D2 crossing paths with the non-playable cast of L4D1 in the last chapter of the campaign. The new content will also include new arenas for Survival, Scavenge and Versus modes as well as a new co-op challenge mode. A new “uncommon common” infected and two new weapons will also be included in “The Passing.” Expect to see the Left 4 Dead 2 DLC this March. In the meantime, you can check out some new images in our gallery below.

12►

Equally as awesome, but a little more nostalgic: L4D1 will also be getting a new DLC add-on set to release after “The Passing.” Details are sparse, but the content is said to tie the two DLC stories together by explaining how the original cast made their way to Georgia. Additionally, a digital comic is set to be released alongside the L4D1 content.