Our new Survivors: Nick, Ellis, Coach and Rochelle

Let's face it, Valve's track record for timing isn't exactly the best.  Considering the Left 4 Dead 2 demo and Modern Warfare 2 delays made a few users...unpleasant...Valve has decided to lay it out for you in black and white on just when Left 4 Dead 2 will be unlocked via Steam.  Are you ready?

When L4D2 will go live:

• Monday, November 16th, 9:00 PM Pacific Standard Time
• Monday, November 16th, 10:00 PM Mountain Standard Time
• Monday, November 16th, 11:00 PM Central Standard Time
• Tuesday, November 17th, 12:00 AM (midnight) Eastern Standard Time
• Tuesday, November 17th, 5:00 AM Greenwich Mean Time
• Tuesday, November 17th, 8:00 AM Moscow Time
• Tuesday, November 17th, 2:00 PM Japan Standard Time 

And there you have it.  We're less than two days away from more Left 4 Dead and solid four player cooperative zombie slaying.

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Despite releasing today to retail outlets and even requiring Valve's Steam service to play, Modern Warfare 2 will not be playable until Thurdsday at 12AM if you pre-ordered via Steam.

We're not quite sure what's going on here, but after the whole Left 4 Dead 2 demo fiasco we're beginning to lose faith in consistent delivery of a timely product on steam.  Luckily if you did pick up the PC version of Modern Warfare 2, despite your trepidation to certain decisions, the game is still playable.  You may have to wait a little longer for some co-op action if your buddy decided to go the complete digital route. 

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If you preordered the PC version of Left 4 Dead 2, and got yourself a hat in Team Fortress 2, you might want to right click on that little icon and start pre-loading.  Over the weekend Valve unlocked the game for pre-loading, and in doing so gamers are one step closer to stopping the zombie horde with three of their friends.

The entire game weighs in at 6.37 gigabytes in size, making it almost a full double layered DVD.  Probably wise to start doing this ASAP so you're ready when the game launches next Tuesday, November 17th.

If you pre-purchased or plan on pre-purchasing Left 4 Dead 2 on Steam, there's a spiffy little extra you'll get if you also play Valve's Team Fortress 2.  Namely you get Bill's beret from Left 4 Dead 1.

But this isn't just some cheap marketing gimmick, nope.  There's a backstory.

... while conducting a science experiment on parallel dimensions, Bill's hat fell off a table into the Team Fortress universe.

And there ya have it.  I would have liked to see the Heavy try to wear Rochelle's pink shirt or the Spy wield the frying pan.  I suppose this will do.

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If you're a fan of Steam and happen to be running Microsoft's recent Windows 7 operating system, you're in for a treat.  The latest Steam update adds full native Windows 7 support for features like jump lists and process bars.

What does that mean?  Seen above you'll have quick access to recent games, mostly co-op ones in my case, quick online tasks as well as one click access to all the tabs.  The best part is Steam doesn't need to be running to take advantage of these features.  Finally while Steam updates, the task bar icon will show the progress in real time.  Suddenly your Left 4 Dead and Dawn of War 2 sessions got a whole lot easier.

While you're updating Steam, don't forget to join our Steam Group!

Activision and Valve have announced a partnership that requires Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to utilize Valve's Steamworks platform.  This means any version of the game, both retail and digital, will require Valve's Steam application to be installed.

The good news is the game will support some advanced Steam features like achievements and Steam Cloud, which will save your settings and progress so that you can access it from any computer you play on.  No need to bring your saved games with you!  

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If you've got Left 4 Dead 2 preordered for the PC, you can now fire up Steam and preload the files getting yourself ready for the zombie slaughter.  It all begins on Tuesday, October 27th.  We strongly advise pre-loading, that way there's no need to wait for the demo to download on Tuesday.  

You don't want to be staring at your friends list, jealous of everyone playing, while you wait for a download to complete...do you?  360 users who preordered also get the demo on the same day, but sadly, there's no pre-loading process.

We reviewed Killing Floor back in June of this year and gave it pretty high accolades.  In a world crowded with zombie and undead shooters, Killing Floor managed to set itself apart by offering new depth in gameplay and six player co-op.  If you still haven't dropped the $20 on the game, you can now get your hands waxed and ready with the full version for free this weekend on Steam.

You can preload the game now, and it should unlock later today, with it being playable until the end of the weekend.  Tripwire has even included brand new bonus content which includes three new maps, seven new weapons and twenty new Steam achievements. 

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Gearbox has officially announced that Borderlands will make its way to PC digital distribution platform Steam when the game is released on October 26th.  Along with that they've announced a few unique features for the PC version of the game.

With however many millions of weapons the game is up to, the one feature that will be a crowd pleaser is the ability to export JPG Cards of your weapons to show off to your friends.  The PC version will also have built in benchmarking tools, and finally, a custom interface designed for the mouse and keyboard.  Yup, there's no console inventory management here folks!

Of course we already heard the PC version is going to look the best, and now with exclusive features it'll make it a tough choice between it and the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 version.  Of course for co-op players it should be all about communication, and it's unclear as to whether or not the game has built in voice chat to aid in that.

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If the recent Left 4 Dead DLC announcement has renewed your interest in the co-op game on the PC, you might want to squeeze in as much playtime as you can tonight.  Tomorrow night, Thursday August 6th, Steam will undergo maintenance at 6PM Pacific.

While you should still have access to your games, you won't be able to play anything utilizing Steam's matchmaking services.  The Steam Community, Store, and lobbies will all be offline until 9PM Pacific.  At least that's the plan - we all know how these upgrades go.

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