Chile-based developer ACE Team has licensed the Source engine for Zeno Clash, an upcoming action/fighting game for release on PC next year. Here’s the deal:

Zeno Clash is an action game with a strong focus on melee combat set in a punk fantasy world. Featuring up close and brutal combat in a first-person perspective, the game is played in battle scenarios where the adversaries are always dangerously close and the use of exotic firearms and artifacts is a commodity. The new close combat mechanics are a deviation from traditional shooting in the FPS genre that will feel fresh for players.

The first chapter is set in a fantastic & chaotic world where the main character has been exiled from his clan and hunted down by his own brothers. A desperate journey past the forbidden desert will bring him to the end of the world.

The game’s official website is up, dishing out some more information on the game. Check out the first screenshots below.

A highly welcome move by Valve is the introduction of “Guest Pass” in Steam, allowing owners of certain Steam games send time-limited demos to their friends. This post on the service’s website states that a beta will be conducted after which the Guest Pass system will be extended to Day of Defeat: Source owners.

No specific titles were mentioned, though Half-Life 2 and other big titles can be taken as staples.

The mod behind my favorite comic of all time - Concerned - is going commercial on Steam. Garry Newman and Valve have announced plans to release Garry’s MOD via Steam. As expected, Garry is quite happy, and says that the release will have quite a few new features: “It has a bunch of new tools to play with (winches, hydraulics and hoverballs), totally new spawn menu and a few new Post Processing effects to play with. The great thing about Steam is that I can update really regularly, really easily - which is something I plan on doing - so expect more tools/gamemodes/stuff to come.”

It will be available starting today; to celebrate the launch, Valve will be offering a special bundle of Garry’s MOD plus Counter-Strike: Source for $25. The mod alone will cost $9.95.

The Collector’s Edition craze continues with Tripwire Interactive’s Red Orchestra, as it is being re-released with a bunch of new features. The re-released WWII FPS will feature two new maps, four new weapons, two new vehicles, a bonus DVD featuring ten of the best maps made by the community, sixteen strategy cards, an official metal dog tag and other content including wallpapers, trailers, artwork and more.

Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 Collector’s Edition will be available soon for $20.

Adding to the ease of coding games for the Xbox 360, Valve has announced the availability of the Source engine as an official middleware solution for the Microsoft console. Having powered Half-Life 2, its upcoming ‘Episodes’, as well as Sin Episode and Vampire: The Masquerade, the Xbox 360 version of Source is optimized to utilize the console’s advanced graphics hardware and offer full support for Xbox Live.

Valve had previously disclosed its plans to release Half-Life 2, along with two of its ‘Episodes’, Team Fortress 2 and Portal to both PS3 and Xbox 360.

Those wanting detailed information about licensing Source should contact Jason Holtman.

The latest Steam message is up, offering word that Valve will soon be releasing a series of updates to Counter-Strike: Source focused on moving the core gameplay “forward”.

The first update will include an updated version of the map Train featuring an HDR lighting pass, some minor layout changes and bugfixes. Second round will see the release of a completely reworked radar system.

The previously promised free Booster Pack for Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 is now available via Steam. A full new map, smoke grenades and other changes mark the features of the Booster Pack.

As a reminder, next week will be host to the Red Orchestra free week, with all players getting the chance to check out the full version of the game, along with the new Booster Pack, from August 2-7.

Coming as good news from the Red Orchestra site is word that a free trial for the World War II shooter will be available through Steam from August 2 through August 7. During this time, players can download and play the full version of the game.

For owners of the title, a free Booster Pack will be released soon. No definite release date was provided, but details on the pack are available; it will offer a full new map - Lyes Krovy; a new weapon system (smoke grenades); two new weapons - the German MP41 sub-machine gun and the Soviet M44 rifle; and numerous other changes.

Tripwire has announced plans to release free content for Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 on July 27 (next Thursday). Scoop:

- Brand new map - “Lyes Krovy”. This is a brutal close-quarters fight for a German trench-and-bunker position in a forest in northern Russia , in the summer of 1944. The Soviet forces get to assault into and through a strongly-fortified position, while the Germans fight hard to hold them off. This one has rapidly become a firm favourite with the test team!

- Brand new weapon system - smoke grenades. We’ve teased about this one on the forums… on some maps, infantry commanders will now have smoke instead of explosive grenades, which can be used to create quick cover for assault routes, or to momentarily blind the defenders. We’re finding that clever use of smoke can change tactical stalemates at a stroke!

- Tank reloading: we’ve listened to the requests and we have changed the tank reloading so that you now choose the next round to load, without having to unload first. Quicker, more realistic, more intuitive.

- Victory conditions changed so round can no longer end in stalemate “No Decisive Victory” situations.

- Multiple fixes, including a fix from Creative Labs for choppy VOIP with EAX, no more players “bouncing” off prone players and no more “telefragging” when players change stance.

The above content will be automatically available through Steam.

Following the release of the Portal trailer, Valve also shot off a teaser trailer for Team Fortress 2 that will be available with Half-Life 2: Episode Two when it hits this Holiday season. The video showing off the various player classes can be found on 3D Downloads, 3D Gamers, FileFront and Worthplaying.

BIG Valve news today! For your sake, the whole thing has been bulletized:

• Half-Life 2: Episode Two, due for release this Holiday season, will be released simultaneously for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

• The next-gen console versions will see enhanced versions plus all Half-Life 2 back content, including Half-Life 2, Episode One and Team Fortress 2.

• This brings us to the revelation of Team Fortress 2, which everyone thought became dead eons ago. Apparently, the game is alive and kicking, and will feature a somewhat-cell-shaded-cartoonish approach, looking a lot like No One Lives Forever and ’60s spy flicks (see image). Players will be able to choose form a range of unique character classes such as medic, spy, sniper, or engineer and must work together to complete a variety of tactical objectives.

• Valve also revealed Portal, a new type of single player game that has a “portal gun” for a weapon. This will change the way players approach, manipulate and solve puzzles in a given environment with the new gun that will let them shoot portals onto walls, objects, and, well, everything!

Concluding their announcement, Valve stated that new videos from Episode Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2 will be released sometime next week.

These titles shipped:

• Chromehounds (Xbox 360)
  
• Prey (PC, Xbox 360)
  
• The Ship

• Painkiller: Hell Wars (Xbox) - July 25

Scorned by your DoD-playing friends for being a cheapskate? Shove bullets into their heads next week as Valve has announced the second Day of Defeat: Source “Free Weekend”.

Those who haven’t purchased the game will be able to check it out starting 1 pm (Pacific Time) on July 7 through 10. Participants in Valve’s philanthropic gesture will also be able to play the new “Jagd” and “Colmar” maps that are being raved about.

Posted before the weekend, but unnoticed somehow, is a Steam update that hypes the newly released SiN: Emergence game as well as the upcoming first Episode for Half-Life 2. The update also discusses maps for Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat Source, stating that new maps for the multiplayer shooters will be released soon:

Counter-Strike: Source has more HDR-enabled versions of maps on the way, along with some enhancements to the game itself. Day of Defeat: Source is getting ready for a significant release that will add a number of new features, along with a new map named Colmar. Colmar is the first map to take advantage of a new objective system that allows us to build different kinds of levels than currently exist. Stay tuned for specifics on how the map plays out, but for now here’s a screenshot of the sleepy night-time village.

Below are the mentioned screenshots:

An announcement on Steam lets us know that Half-Life 2: Episode One has begun preloading via the broadband content delivery service. It also reminds one that the first SiN episode has gone gold and that the Red Orchestra SDK has been released.

Episode One will be playable starting June 1. Until then it’s going to sit locked on your hard drive if you wish it to.