In a new video from Big Robot’s Jim Rossignol, we finally have a date that the “tweed-punk” survival game “Sir, You Are Being Hunted”’s alpha rest becomes available. Kickstarter contributors have been playing a pre-alpha version of the game since the campaign ended, but now the general public will be able to get access with a pre-order.

Set in a very dark, very British, procedurally generated world, S,YABH is a game all about hiding and escaping. In a refreshing twist on the typical FPS formula of a super soldier on a seek-and-destroy mission against every single enemy in game, S,YABH puts you in the position of the seek-and-destroyee. Pitted against tweed and top hat wearing robots, you must survive and escape a Victorian, robot controlled version of the British Isles by collecting items across a variety of biomes including towns, mountains, forests, fens, and more.

Check out the video

And to pre-order the game for access to the alpha go to http://www.big-robot.com/

Cross-posted from Technically Motivated – Original Link. Techie Jinji and Crimsonshade are the same person.

After multiple rumours, not to mention several hints by the company in recent weeks, it’s now confirmed that Valve is working on its own gaming computer to offically bring Steam – its popular gaming platform that brings a gaming library, store, acheivement system and storage (all online) into one convenient package – to the living room. And thanks to discussion from computer manufacturer Xi3, who are working on the custom PC, we now have some details regarding the planned product – codenamed “Piston” – and what will be going inside.

Given Valve’s public snubbing of Windows 8 for various restrictions over the sale of apps targeting the system’s new interface; and the launch in December of a beta version of Steam for Linux; it should come as no surprise that the system is expected to run a Linux-based Operating System – though which of the various kinds out there it will be, is as yet unclear – which will have Steam pre-installed and setup to run in Big Picture mode by default, offering a very TV-centric interface. As for asthetics, Piston will be coloured in the familiar charcoal grey typically associated with Valve’s software. The form factor, however, is unlikely to be anything typical, and may possibly consist of a four-inch cube-like shape with easily accessible and upgradable components – something of a hallmark of Xi3, who specialise in “developing micro-size modular computing without performance tradeoffs”.

Being designed to plug into a TV for use in the living room, the Piston will have a 1080p HDMI output jack for connecting any HD display. It will also contain eight USB ports, four using the old USB 2.0 standard and another four utilising the newer, faster 3.0 standard quickly finding favour in modern tech. In an interview with games site Polygon, Xi3 chief marketing officer David Politis also revealed that Piston will offer up to one terabyte of internal storage; and is based on the company’s X7A system.

The X7A system retails for $999 in the United States, which roughly equates to £622 at current rates; however, it’s likely Valve will attempt to lower this price in line with its own specifications; though the company has suggested they expect the computer to sell at a premium. Given the value of other computers within the same line from Xi3, however – the most basic of which being the entry-level X5A at $499, it’s unlikely the final price point of the Piston will be below a $500 or £300 level. So, would you pay that much for something like this?

Valve Software, developers of popular gaming client Steam, which allows games to be purchased online (often at seriously low prices) and sync them with your Steam Account so that they update online automatically; and in many cases also allow your games, game saves, achievements and so on to be retrievable on other computers, announced today that due to growing customer demand the company is expanding beyond gaming and making "creativity and productivity software" available through its store.

Starting September 5th, Steam will allow users to purchase and download non-gaming software from the Steam Store and link them to their account. Many of the launch titles will take advantage of popular Steamworks features, leading to the exciting prospect that the software, like most Steam games, will automatically update while connected to Steam and may even sync documents or settings wherever you take Steam with you. After the initial launch line-up, the collection of available downloads will be regularly added to with new software on a regular basis.

The below is the official Press Release:

Aug 8, 2012 — Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced the first set of Software titles are heading to Steam, marking a major expansion to the platform most commonly known as a leading destination for PC and Mac games.

 

The Software titles coming to Steam range from creativity to productivity. Many of the launch titles will take advantage of popular Steamworks features, such as easy installation, automatic updating, and the ability to save your work to your personal Steam Cloud space so your files may travel with you.

 

More Software titles will be added in an ongoing fashion following the September 5th launch, and developers will be welcome to submit Software titles via Steam Greenlight.

 

"The 40 million gamers frequenting Steam are interested in more than playing games," said Mark Richardson at Valve. "They have told us they would like to have more of their software on Steam, so this expansion is in response to those customer requests."

Exciting, no?

Originally posted on Technically Motivated – For those who don't understand Technology; and those who do. Our Motivation is Highlighting Tech Innovation.

Gabe Newell announced today that Steam's database and forums have been hacked. According to Newell, Steam's forums were defaced earlier this week, and further investigation led to evidence that the hackers had obtained access to the Steam database.

"This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information," Newell wrote. "We do not have evidence that encrypted credit card numbers or personally identifying information were taken by the intruders, or that the protection on credit card numbers or passwords was cracked. We are still investigating."

While the hackers may have had access to the data, it isn't immediately clear how much information they actually took, or if any of it has been used.

"We don't have evidence of credit card misuse at this time," Newell added. "Nonetheless you should watch your credit card activity and statements closely."

Beyond personal information, Newell also issued an advisory about Steam forum accounts. All users will be required to change their passwords the next time they log in, and Newell recommends changing the passwords on any other accounts that used the same password.

"We do not know of any compromised Steam accounts, so we are not planning to force a change of Steam account passwords (which are separate from forum passwords). However, it wouldn't be a bad idea to change that as well, especially if it is the same as your Steam forum account password. We will reopen the forums as soon as we can. I am truly sorry this happened, and I apologize for the inconvenience."