Warren Spector, the computer game legend behind classics such as Ultima Underworld, Thief, System Shock, Duex Ex, and Duex Ex 2 (ok, may be not that one) is working on a game using the Source engine which will be released and sold through Steam.

Its becoming very clear that Valve is positioned to completely dominate the market of game distribution online. This is a very big deal. There are tons of companies trying to do just the same thing for music distribution online right now — Apple iTunes, “paid” Napster, Real, the list goes on. Right now, no other company is even close to being on the same level as Steam, unlike what is going on with music. I see a very Steam, Steam-Powered future..

Did wait in line all night and manage to get your hands on a brand new Xbox 360. Happy, right? Well not if you are one of many people to walk home with a defective Xbox360. Reports are pouring in of overheating, crashing, and defective 360 hard drives. Not good news for Microsoft or angry fans.

From Steam News:

Tripwire Interactive today announced a new World War II PC game, Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45. Tripwire will deliver its award-winning first person shooter via Steam, Valve’s online content delivery system. The original Red Orchestra won Nvidia’s “$1,000,000 Make Something Unreal” contest. Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 is a standalone follow-up, built on Epic’s Unreal 2.5 EngineTM, that introduces new gameplay and features.

You can check out a few Red Orchestra screenshots over here. This is interesting that Valve is now going to use Steam to release a non-Source engine game. Not just that, but Epic’s Unreal engine is a direct competitor to what Valve’s Steam.

Here is a funny story from over at Xbox Scene. Some dude waited in line at Best Buy for 55 hours, bought an Xbox 360, and then smashed it with a sledgehammer in front of everyone. Kind of amusing, but considering that Xbox 360’s are going for about $1,000 a piece on ebay right now, quite costly.

From Ritual’s Online Community site:

We spent a few hours yesterday testing SiN 1 multiplayer on Steam, playing deathmatch on a few crowd favorites, like Spry, Paradox, Railroad and Sin City. Everything went well, so it’s getting pretty close. The game is still one of the best multiplayer experiences out there and I can’t wait for this to become available. It’s like it’s 1998 all over again.

The question is, will this SiN 1 multiplayer be using the new source engine like we saw with the incredible SiN episodes screenshots? I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be.

From Valve’s Steam news:

The CPL has announced its 2006 Summer Event, which will include a CS event that offers $300,000 in cash prizes to be distributed to the top 64 teams, with $90,000 going to the winning team. To enter your team, visit www.TheCPL.com/register/.

I’m not quite sure if this is just original Counter-Strike or Counter-Strike Source. I’m kind of dissapointed with the amount too. CS is the biggest online game — by a very large margin. $90,000 for the very top team, split up among the members is about enough for each of them to pay rent for a year.

Want to make a lot of money playing games? Become a pro gamer. Johnathan Wendel has been pulling in big bugs for years winning game tournaments and through sponsorships.

He says he made about $110,000 in 2000, his first pro year, and has been consistently earning a respectable salary built on play he considers work. This year, Wendel expects to make about $200,000 between winnings and products.

More screenshots from the next Ghost Recon game have been released. These screenshots still appear to be from the console version. The screenshots show combat in both urban and a rocky desert environment — all south of the US border in Mexico. Its been revealed that the storyline involves a scenario of unrest in Mexico City.

Move over Jack Thompson, there is a Chinese lawyer who wants to take your place — Zhang Chunliang. He is suing Blizzard in China because a 13 year old boy who played World of Warcraft decided to kill himself. The comparison to Jack Thompson is no joke either. Zhang too is a self promoter, he’s written a book and is currently organizing a campaign against internet game addiction.

Gamespot has posted a preview of Perfect Dark Zero for Xbox360. The writer asks whether this game could be the Xbox 360’s Halo — in other words, the killer “app” for the 360. Perfect Dark Zero is looking promising with an in-depth single player game as well as the must-have split-screen and online multiplayer. Judging by the screenshots, this game has more of an anime style than anything near photorealistic. Only time will tell if Perfect Dark Zero is truly a revolutionary FPS.