• Half-Life 3 To Be Published by EA as Xbox 360 Exclusive

    VALVE ANNOUNCED LONG-AWAITED HALF-LIFE 3 IN GROUNDBREAKING PARTNERSHIP WITH ELECTRONIC ARTS.

    BREAKING BARRIERS WITH EXPLOSIVE HOLLYWOOD ACTION AND ALL-STAR VOICE CASTING

    REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - April 1st, 2013 - Valve Software, this morning, has announced a groundbreaking partnership with Electronic Arts to publish the long-awaited follow-up to Half-Life 2: Episode Two™. Players looking to jump back into the shoes of the world's hottest theoretical physicist can do so this Holiday season with Half-Life 3™. Set to be the first game powered by EA DICE's revolutionary Frostbite 5.0, Half-Life 3™ delivers all of the cutting-edge Hollywood action and explosions that Half-Life™ players have come to expect from the franchise.

    Half-Life 3™'s groundbreaking story begins 20 years after the events in Half-Life 2: Episode Two™. With no explanation whatsoever, Gordon Freeman has retired to the sunny streets of Venice Beach, California. Hoping to live the rest of his life in peace, Gordon has opened up a Lemonade stand on the boardwalk. His freedom is to be short lived, however. When the terrorist group Beta Sigma Sigma comes out of the woodwork, threatening to destroy the United States with a lethal chemical weapon known as The Catalyst, the United States Military calls on Gordon to come to our aid.

    Fervently hoping this is his last mission, Gordon Freeman joins up with the Navy SEALs to take the fight to Beta Sigma Sigma in the heart of Afghanistan. This globe-trotting singleplayer campaign will take players to every corner of the globe, from the penguin-strewn vastness of Antarctic to the sweaty jungles of Myanmar. Gordon will be forced to use every weapon at his disposal, from the deadly Nausea Gun - causing anyone in its radius, including Gordon, to vomit uncontrollably - to the much-anticipated Vertigun that causes instant loss of equilibrium to Gordon's hapless foes.

    "We are beyond thrilled and delighted to be partnering with Electronic Arts and Microsoft for Half-Life 3™," said Gabe Newell, Managing Director at Valve Software. "EA's stellar track record in the past decade has guaranteed a strong, powerful launch for Half-Life 3™ and the support of Origin means that players no longer have to be bogged down by all of the additional features and capability of our own platform, Steam™.

    Deciding to release Half-Life 3™ as an Xbox 360 exclusive was really a no-brainer. If there's one thing we know, it's our audience, and this announcement is sure to thrill them beyond compare."

  • Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Copenhagen Games 2013 Viewers Guide

    Heard of CPH Games? No? Shame on you!

    CPH Games is the largest CS:GO tourney to date with every top team in the world in attendance and €33.000 on the line. Fan of team Curse? Great! They have both their North American and Finnish squads in attendance. Not only is this tournament important for the teams in attendance, it is also important for the future of CS:GO.

    We will finally get a real pulse of how many people are willing to watch competitive CS:GO and thus how willing sponsors are to continue sponsoring events and teams.

    So if you like competitive FPS, open that stream and support!

    Keep reading for the stream embed and a full schedule!

  • Resident Evil 6 and Left 4 Dead 2 Crossover Coming in April

    Valve and Capcom have announced that the worlds of Resident Evil 6 and Left 4 Dead 2 will be mashed up in the best way imaginable next month as Capcom celebrates the release of Resident Evil 6 on PC.

    The crossover means new content is coming to both games, starting on April 5th, here's how it works:

    While Resident Evil 6 launches on March 22nd, the content won't go live until the beginning of April. When it does, however, it will include all four of the player characters in Left 4 Dead 2, made playable in Resident Evil 6. Coach, Nick, Ellis and Rochelle will be playable in the The Mercenaries: No Mercy game mode, available exclusively on PC. Also coming to RE6 are the Witch and Mini Tank enemies, originally found in Left 4 Dead 2. This content will be available for free and will automatically update when it goes live next month.

    As for Left 4 Dead 2, players who own that game will get three iconic RE6 enemies; Lepotitsa, Napad and Ogroman. These characters were brought to the game by Valve developers using the tools available in the Steam Workshop. Again, this content will be free to download and should be available this spring.

  • ESEA Stream: Curse CS Eu vs mousesportsde Today at 2:00PM ET

    Update: If you missed today's stream, hit us up on Twitch.tv at http://www.twitch.tv/fpsgeneral/b/368443036! Previous article follows.

    Join us today as we stream some ESEA action at 2:00PM ET today. Our very own Curse CS:GO Europe will be taking on mousesportsde and we'll be streaming the entire match right here!

    Special thanks to dioko for casting today's matches for us, make sure you check him out on Twitch.tv where he streams regularly and also does a bit of playing himself.

    Go Curse!

  • Cursenamic Win Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Tournament at RyuLAN

    While neither Curse or Dynamic could field their full squads for RyuLAN in Terre Haute, Indiana, the mixed squad would still find success. With Curse’s Cody “ezpk” Shirley on vacation and several Dynamic members unable to attend, the two teams decided to join forces with Curse seeing their three members in Todd “anger” Williams, Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham, and Stan "stan^" Sukachov join up with Sal “Volcano” Garozzo and Eric “adreN” Hoag from Team Dynamic.

    The team, dubbed “Cursnamic” by the community, were placed in a group with Frost Gaming (FG), a complete ESEA-I team with a lot of potential. However, the team headlined by Moe “moe” Assad lost closely to Cursnamic 16-13 on de_mirage_csgo. During one of the final rounds, one of the members from Frost Gaming accidently hit his F10 key, disconnecting him from the game. Many spectators believe the result could have been different, most likely resulting in overtime.

    Starting out the double elimination bracket, Cursnamic was faced by the Canadian Crucial Connection (c2) team who traveled 15 hours by car to make it to the tournament. Cursnamic easily handled c2 on de_nuke_se with a 16-3 victory. On the other side of the bracket, FG defeated MonoManiac to set the stage for a rematch with Cursenamic in the winner’s bracket finals. This rematch would once again prove how close these teams were as it ended up in overtime. Perhaps renewed with energy, Cursnamic swept the overtime with four straight rounds, winning 19-15. Cursnamic would now wait as the winners bracket finalists to see who they would face in the Best of 3 (Bo3) series for 1st place.

    Keep reading to see what the final results of the tournament were.

  • Team Curse Counter-Strike: Global Offensive North American Loses 2, Adds 2

    Over the holiday season the Curse.NA Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) team ran into a few hiccups when they saw the loss of juv3nile and frozt. While no team wants to be in the position of replacing two members, the team was fortunate in that there were no major events on the horizon and there are no official ESEA league matches during the holiday season. The team decided to make the most out of the situation and find two players who matched the passion and dedication of the remaining players. After playing with quite a few players, they made their decision by picking up Cody “ezpk” Shirley and Stan “stan” Sukachov.

    Keep reading to see what the team captain and new members had to say about the move.

  • Counter-Strike: Global Offensive THOR Open Recap – NiP 1st, Curse.eu 2nd

    This last weekend saw many of the top CS:GO teams in Europe come together in Stockholm, Sweden for an 8 team tournament. One of the contestants was the newly acquired Curse.eu team reigning from Finland. The tournament started in a round robin group format with the top two teams moving on. Curse.eu was placed in group A with the Swedish Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP): the undefeated #1 team in the world.

     Group A Results

     

    Ninjas in Pyjamas vs Curse.eu

    16-6

    gosu vs Copenhagen Wolves

    7-16

    Copenhagen Wolves vs Ninjas in Pyjamas

    7-16

    Curse.eu vs gosu

    11-16

    Ninjas in Pyjamas vs gosu

    16-11

    Copenhagen Wolves vs Curse.eu

    8-16

     

    After a disappointing first match with NiP, losing 16-6, Curse took on the Swedish gosu team. While many expected a quick win for Curse, they experienced 6 computer crashes throughout the match which they later lost 16-11. In order to get out of the group and into the semi-finals after losing their first two matches, Curse had to beat the #6 world ranked CPH Wolves team from Denmark, and beat them convincingly. Living up to the situation Curse did just that, taking complete control of the match from the very first round, winning in a 16-8 lopsided victory.

    With the victory, there was a 3 way tie as each of Curse, gosu, and CPH Wolves had one victory. To add to the suspense of the moment, Curse took 2nd place in the group due to round difference (rounds won subtracted by rounds loss), where they slid by with a single round.

    Following the excitement in Group A were the matches in Group B with three Swedish and one Danish team fighting to see who would face NiP and Curse.eu in the semi-finals. Unfortunately, there was much less excitement than Group A as the Danish Anexis team won all 3 of their matches and the Swedish Lemondogs went 2-1, although many of the matches were much closer than those in Group A. At this point, CPH Wolves, gosu, Western Wolves, and Absolute Legends were heading home, and the semi-final match-ups were set.

    Curse was to play the Group B winners in Anexis, while NiP were to play the Group B runner-ups in Lemondogs.

    Keep reading for the full tournament recap!

  • Getting to Know CS: GO Team Curse: Todd Williams

    Todd Williams is a member of Curse's Counter Strike: Global Offensive(CS:GO) team. He's 25, lives in Beaufort, South Carolina and he's been playing competitive Counter Strike since 2002. I sat down with Todd and discussed his pro-gaming career.

    Andrew Hamling(AH): Hello there! Let's start off by asking about your training regiment, how do you train for a competition and am I interrupting it?

    Todd Williams(TW): Hahahaha!

    (AH): I take that as a no...

    (TW): Before Dreamhack this year [Team Curse] were playing together as a team for at least six hours a day to prepare. Individually if I had time I would Deathmatch for an hour a day and/or ESEA(E-Sports Entertainment Association) pug after practice with teammates who still wanted to play.

    (AH): We're going to step backwards quite a bit here, but what got you into competitive gaming?

    (TW): Oh man! I was 11-12ish when I saw my older brother playing Quake 1. I was sucked in instantly and started playing it constantly when I would get home from school. I also played Everquest when it was released on the side, haha! I switched to Quake 2 when it was released and so on. Near the end of middle school a friend introduced me to Team-Fortress and I found out about Counter-Strike on my own.

    Todd Williams seen here in the middle with Team Dynamic winning the ESEA-LAN earlier this year. Courtesy ESEA.

    Keep reading for more from Andrew's discussion with Todd Williams of Curse's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team!

  • Curse Adds Counter-Strike: Global Offensive European Team

    Curse Gaming has reached an agreement with the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) team formerly known as The Hawks, who will now become Curse.EU. The core of The Hawks have represented Finland at major International tournaments for several years in Counter-Strike 1.6.

    Upon switching to CS:GO the team has already cemented itself as one of the top teams in Europe. We at Curse look forward to a long-term relationship with the team as we assist them in competing at major events.

    Joona "natu" Leppanen said the following of the partnership:

    "We are happy to announce that Hawks have finally landed a new home in Curse. This will give us the opportunity to truely show what we're capable of as they have shown great support right away with funding us over to THOR Open on such a short notice. This partnership gives our team the necessary support on our way up the ranks of CSGO internationally, team captain Joona "natu" Leppänen told HLTV.org.

    "We hope that everyone that has been supporting us as Hawks will continue to do so in the future under the Curse-flag. You can expect a lot of streaming and other content from the players through various social media and on Curse websites.

    "I would especially like to thank Ben and Mike of Curse for believing in us!"

     The full Curse.EU roster includes:

    You can keep an eye on the team with the following social media:

  • Major Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Update Released Today

    Hidden Path Entertainment released a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) update today that will have a major impact on the meta-game of CSGO. These changes will be felt most by the pro players in the competitive scene as these changes have gone live with the ESEA North American finals starting tomorrow and DreamHack starting a week from today.

    The most important changes in this patch are the following:

    • Fire devices have been modified ( Molotovs and incendiary grenades )
    • Fire can now be extinguished by smoke grenades and deployed smokes now deny fire device detonation and spreading.
    • Fire now spreads a bit faster and not quite as far.
    • Fire "tagging" slowdown has been removed.
    • Adjusted fire armor penetration value.
    • Smoke grenade visibility inside a smoke has been reduced to give less advantage to players inside and more to players outside.

    The changes to fire devices are going to completely change how competitive teams play as Counter-Terrorist (CT). Previously, fire devices were overpowered in that they did a lot of damage and they slowed you down. This meant CT's could throw them on major choke points at the beginning of the round allowing them to get into good position and effectively stop any early aggression from the Terrorists (T).

    This lead to bank rolled CT's throwing fire devices at every major choke point while they got into ideal position and the T's were forced to sit and wait.

    Read more about the effect of these changes, as well as some insight from Michael3D, professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and member of Team Curse CS:GO.

  • Curse King of The Hill, Week 4 - Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

    The Curse King of the Hill tournament is a Best of 3 (Bo3) series where the winning team takes home $100 in prize money as well as the status of King, where they will face a new challenger the following week. We've been running tournaments in DayZ and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for the last few weeks, crowning Kings and dishing out prize money.

    Curse is also holding tournaments in other games, namely World of Tanks, League of Legends, DOTA 2 and World of Warcraft.

    But we're all about the shooters here at FPS General, so we'll be focusing on DayZ and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

    We're on Week 4 again after Hurricane Sandy swept through the east coast last week disconnecting several players from the Internet. We also have two new challengers as the reigning kings in Area 51 are still travelling back from an impressive third place finish at ESWC in Paris, France.

    These two challengers will be facing off to see who gets to take on Area 51 next week. We also have a guest caster in the studio as ZoNdo will be filling in for an out-of-town cika this week.

    Teams - Team Curse vs Don't Trust Anyone
    Casters - Ben "smokie" Robinson and Kris "ZoNdo" Elizondo
    Time - 10pm EST

    All of these matches are going to be streamed live at http://www.curse.com/king-of-the-hill!

  • Play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive This Weekend For Free

    If you haven't had a chance to play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive yet, Steam is making the game free to play for this weekend on Steam. This means you can play the entirety of Global Offensive, with no limitations, from now until 1:00PM Pacific Time on Sunday, November 4th, 2012.

    Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a must-play if you are a fan of first-person shooters. While it doesn't really deliver anything new in comparison to previous Counter-Strike games, the overall experience is as polished and complete a game as you'll want to play. For our money, this is the best Counter-Strike experience to date.

    Sure, purists will be cursing our very souls right now, saying something that sounds like ''Counter-Strike: Source' through gritted teeth, but we've really enjoyed Global Offensive over the past few months.

    Check out the game at http://store.steampowered.com/app/730/ for a quick download link for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. If you enjoy it, the game is on sale for just $9.99 through November 5th.

  • Curse King of The Hill, Week 5 - Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

    The Curse King of the Hill tournament is a Best of 3 (Bo3) series where the winning team takes home $100 in prize money as well as the status of King, where they will face a new challenger the following week. We've been running tournaments in DayZ and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for the last few weeks, crowning Kings and dishing out prize money.

    Curse is also holding tournaments in other games, namely World of Tanks, League of Legends, DOTA 2 and World of Warcraft.

    But we're all about the shooters here at FPS General, so we'll be focusing on DayZ and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

    Week 5 is kicking off today with some epic Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matchups, in both European Union and North American regions. The schedule for today looks like this:

    EU:

    Teams: Next Gaming v lowlandlions

    Time: 9:00PM GMT (1:00PM Pacific Time, 4:00PM Eastern Time)

    NA:

    Teams: Team Curse vs DTA

    Time: 10:00PM Eastern Time (7:00PM Pacific Time)

    Please note: some members of the North American teams are in the projected path of Hurricane Sandy. As a result, the NA matches may be delayed or rescheduled, depending on the severity of the storm and any power outages.

    All of these matches are being casted and streamed at http://www.curse.com/king-of-the-hill. See you online!

  • King of the Hill Week 4, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

    The Curse King of the Hill tournament is a Best of 3 (Bo3) series where the winning team takes home $100 in prize money as well as the status of King, where they will face a new challenger the following week. We've been running tournaments in DayZ and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for the last few weeks, crowning Kings and dishing out prize money.

    Curse is also holding tournaments in other games, namely World of Tanks, League of Legends, DOTA 2 and World of Warcraft.

    But we're all about the shooters here at FPS General, so we'll be focusing on DayZ and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

    We're on Week 4 now, with matches taking place tonight. Both geographical regions are seeing new kings take on their first challengers after snatching the throne last week. The schedule for North America and Europe look like this:

    Edit: Unfortunately, due to conflicting schedules, the EU matches have been postponed until a later date. North American matches will be proceeding as normal, listed below.

    EU:
    Teams - extensive vs Toxic

    Casters - Pansy & Arcy

    Time - 8GMT/3PM EST

    US:
    Teams - Area 51 vs Don't Trust Anyone

    casters - Ben "smokie" Robinson and Mike "fallen" Cika

    Time - 10pm EST

    All of these matches are going to be streamed live at http://www.curse.com/king-of-the-hill!

  • Team Fortress 2's Mann vs Machine Gets Matchmaking Update

    Valve has released an update this week for the recently introduced co-op mode in Team Fortress 2, Mann vs Machine.

    The update brings changes to matchmaking and difficulty in Mann vs Machine. First up, there are two new Tours of Duty (MvM's name for difficulty modes). One of the new tours is more difficult than the normal mode, while the other is easier. Both tours feature some new loot that can be acquired during the match. All told, Mann vs Machine now features three Tours of Duty...

    • Operation Oil Spill (Easiest)
    • Operation Steel Trap (Harder)
    • Operation Gear Grinder (Hardest)

    In addition to the new Tours of Duty, Valve has also updated Matchmaking with some new options.

    The improvements are going to make it much easier to get into a group with other players, letting you select multiple missions when you begin your matchmaking search. Additionally, after you complete the mission, you will be sent back to the matchmaking screen with your group, allowing you all to quickly jump into a new match together.

    Check out http://www.teamfortress.com/ for more information on this week's update.

     

  • Curse King of the Hill Tournament, Week Two: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

    Week Two of the North American version of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive King of the Hill tournament will see the reigning champion Sex Pistols take on a formidable opponent in We Are GO Players, the team formerly known as Ultimax Gaming. WAGP were a dominant force in 1.6 and their success has began to transfer over to CS: GO as seen by their 11-5 record in ESEA-Invite.

    The Curse King of the Hill tournament is a Best of 3 (Bo3) series where the winning team takes home $100 in prize money as well as the status of King, where they will face a new challenger the following week.

    Week Two has a few games seeing off weeks, but during a normal week, Curse will be hosting tournaments in World of Warcraft, League of Legends, World of Tanks, DayZ and Defense of the Ancients 2. A different game every day, crowning a King each week.

    Week Two Schedule

    North America: October 8th @ 10PM EST

    Teams: Sex Pistols vs We Are GO Players

    Casters: smokie and fallen

    Maps: de_inferno, de_dust2, de_nuke_ve

    The entire event is going to be streamed at http://www.own3d.tv/King-of-the-Hill, including the rest of the lineup of games outside of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Join us on Facebook and Twitter to share your thoughts on who will come out on top!

    Stop by http://www.curse.com/king-of-the-hill for more information on the tournaments including schedules for other games. 

  • Curse King of the Hill Tournament, Week One: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

    This Monday will see two Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams in both Europe and North America compete for a chance to be named King for a week where they will sit until they are challenged the following week.

    In addition to the honor of being Curse's King of the Hill, the winning teams will take home $100 prizing money.

    The teams will play in a Best of 3 (Bo3) series.

    If Counter-Strike: Global Offensive isn't your game, that's okay! Perhaps you'll be interested in the other games we'll be playing.

    Week One has a few games seeing off weeks, but during a normal week, Curse will be hosting tournaments in World of Warcraft, League of Legends, World of Tanks, DayZ and Defense of the Ancients 2. A different game every day, crowning a King each week.

    The first week schedule for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive looks like:

    Week One Schedule

    Europe: 8pm BST(GMT+1) 3PM EST

    Teams: Perilous vs Skitlite

    Casters: ArcY and Pansy

    North America: 8PM EST

    Teams: Sex Pistols vs beneath the dome

    Casters: smokie and fallen

    Maps: de_dust2, de_inferno, de_nuke_ve

    The entire event is going to be streamed at http://www.own3d.tv/King-of-the-Hill, including the rest of the lineup of games outside of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Join us on Facebook and Twitter to share your thoughts on who will come out on top!

    Stop by http://www.curse.com/king-of-the-hill for more information on the tournaments including schedules for other games. 

  • Join Us As We Stream Half-Life Remake Black Mesa!

    The good people behind the Half-Life community remake Black Mesa have finally released their baby into the wild! If you haven't downloaded the game yet, but want to get a good look at it, you can check out our live stream right now!

    If you're unfamiliar with the game, Black Mesa is a community-developed modification for Half-Life 2 that breathes new life into the original classic, Half-Life. This means brand new music, brand new voice acting, additional dialogue, updated choreography, brand new skins and so much more!

    This is a full and true remake of the game that everyone has come to love, the way the Black Mesa developers feel that we should have been playing it all along.

    We are going to be streaming Black Mesa in its entirety, right here, right now. Jonni will be firing up the channel on Own3d.tv for some Black Mesa action, bringing you a live playthrough of the game in its entirety. Enjoy!

  • Black Mesa Greenlit, Coming Soon to Steam

    Fans who have been looking forward to playing Black Mesa for the last decade will be pleased to learn that the game has been approved on Steam Greenlight and will soon be arriving on Steam! The highly anticipated Half-Life remake should be arriving on Steam in the very near future:

    Anna Sweet, Valve

    The Steam community rallied around these titles and made them the clear choice for the first set of titles to launch out of Greenlight. Since launch, hundreds of titles have been submitted, with more coming in every day. We expect to be announcing more titles coming to Steam via Greenlight soon.

    Steam Greenlight has hundreds of games currently in the voting stage which you can check out and vote to approve, if you think that you would buy it on Steam should Valve Software decide to pick it up. Black Mesa was one of the first 'big games' to go up on Steam Greenlight and was quickly approved along with several other titles.

    Check out the othe great games on Steam Greenlight and visit Black Mesa at http://www.blackmesasource.com/. No word was released on when the game would launch on Steam but the Black Mesa development team is planning releasing the first version of the Half-Life remake on September 14th.