Valve, you are my friend

I got into PC gaming when Team Fortress 2 came out. I had played PC games before that, like Starcraft, Diablo, and Tribes 2, but TF2 was the first PC game I bought for myself. This revolutionized my idea of games. Finally, I saw a reasonable way to have a healer class in a first person shooter.

Since I had to buy Team Fortress 2 in the orange box (in order to get it on launch day) I also got Portal and the entirety of Half-life 2. I blasted through Portal and found it amazing. Then I played Team Fortress 2 for hours upon hours. I couldn't get enough of it. I was an amazing game.

And it only got better with each update. First, there was the medic update, which was beautiful since at that point I played medic much of the time. Then the pyro update came out. I tried out the pyro and loved it. Airblast made the class viable for me. Instead of being a close range class, he became an anti-explosive class. Consistently, Valve made me love each class more. Because I am better at anticipating movement than I am at aiming where the player is, the huntsman made me levels better at sniper and the dead ringer just made spy fun. The scout update brought the sandman and FaN for making the hit and run tactics I already use more efficient. Basically, I use all the items that people constantly complain are cheap (except the backburner, which had no excuse until it recently came into use as a half decent weapon by getting a damage buff). Then just a week or two ago Valve came out with an update to the last of their 9 classes, and their still gonna release a new weapon pack in a little while.

I guess I'm trying to say that Valve is amazing, and I've only talked about 2 of the Valve games I own. Half-life 2 has a story that rivals most novels and controls so tight that they puts Halo to shame (and have been since Halo came out, which was after HL2). So needless to say, Valve makes great games. Then on top of that they released their game engine and have allowed people to build mods in that engine. They've tried to make modding as simple as possible, and as a result there are tons of source mods available, some at or above average standards for video game quality.

Now, Valve is not one to let good enough alone. They are still producing more great work in order to keep me coming back forever. Currently they are enticing me with Portal 2. They said that they hired the team that made Tag. I was amazed because I played this game when it was released on the Digipen gallery and I loved it and because Valve hired a team from Digipen for the first Portal game. If Valve keeps this up I might have to go to Digipen myself. Here's to hoping that Portal 3 uses mechanics from Dreamside Maroon.

So I'm anticipating great games and have been getting constant free update to great games I already own. Now what? Valve is releasing a game that new employees created to prove they are Valve material, for free. Wait, what? Free. They are giving away a source game (presumably with the engine), in an effort to prove how badass their developers are. I think they win. They absolutely succeed in their attempted goal and I love them as people. What other company would just release a game for free? EA did with battlefield heroes, but only with the intention of charging people for customization. Sony did the same thing with free realms. There is no doubt in my mind that Valve is one of the most consumer friendly companies in existence, especially in the video game industry. What boggles me is that Valve can stay in business. And then if they can, why can't other companies do similarly?

Here is that free steam game, which is called Alien Swarm. The only requirement for getting it is that you have Steam (which is also free an you should have already if you are in any way a PC gamer).

Valve, thank you for all that you have done for me, for being with me through highs and lows, and for caring about me even though you have never met me and do not know my name. You are my friend.