Ricochet Message Board

Valve head honcho Gabe Newell got a visit from fans on 4chan.org's /v/ board for his birthday, and after paying $2.50 to unlock a real-life Mann Co. crate with a TF2 Soldier hat inside, he stuck around to talk shop. The first question (Newell specifically warned against questions about Half-Life 3) was, paraphrased from the above recording, "Is Valve working on a new Source engine?"

Newell answered, "We've been working on new engine stuff for a while." The audio then became garbled, but subtitles read, "We've just been waiting for a game to roll it out with." Regardless of the incomprehensible audio, someone asked a straightforward follow-up question: "Is it more than just an extension to Source? Like, is it an entirely new engine?"

"Yeah," Newell said.

In August a group uncovered code for a "Source 2 engine" in the Source Filmmaker application, alongside "Source 2 tools" icons. The engine was labeled "next-gen."

Also during /v/'s Valve takeover, Newell and co. confirmed that Ricochet 2 is in development.

#valve After asking Valve Software boss Gabe Newell a bunch of questions about the Half-Life games on the new Seven Day Cooldown podcast, an interviewer finally cut to the chase: More »

Did you know that Smallville is shot on location in the future? We weren't aware of this fact until several readers pointed out that Project Natal made an appearance in Friday's episode, "Warrior."

Want to see Natal gaming in action (as in, pantomimed by an actor)? Start watching this episode at about the 23-minute mark. The awkward product placement makes an already-awkward date scene super-awkward! "Maybe you need to look ridiculous!" the player says, trying to entice Chloe into a game of Ricochet. Could that be the tagline for the ad campaign?

If you want to watch a thrilling yarn about a cursed comic book, that's the rest of the episode.