In November of 2011, Valve became another victim in a stream of hacks that escalated following the PlayStation Network breach. During that time, Valve closed the Steam forums and recommended everyone change their passwords for the sake of security. Today, Valve co-founder Gabe Newell informed the Steam community it’s possible the hackers obtained a private backup file as well.

The backup file contains a list of Steam transactions between 2004 and 2008. Along with those transactions were email addresses, user names, billing information and credit card information. Fortunately, the billing addresses and credit card details are encrypted. Steam passwords were not stored in that file.

“We do not have any evidence that the encrypted credit card numbers or billing addresses have been compromised,” Newell said. “However as I said in November it’s a good idea to watch your credit card activity and statements. And of course keeping Steam Guard on is a good idea as well.”

Via [Steam]

Only two Android games are going to be on sale those days. You can get Sonic CD for $2.99 instead of $4.99 or Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 for $1.99 instead of $3.99. In both cases, you’re getting pretty substantial savings.

People shopping on iTunes have a bigger selection to choose from as 13 games are on sale there. Here’s the full list.

• Altered Beast – 99¢
• Golden Axe 2 – 99¢
• Golden Axe 3 – 99¢
• Gunstar Hero – 99¢
• Sonic CD – $2.99
• Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 – $1.99 for universal app, $2.99 for iPad app
• Streets of Rage 2 – 99¢
• Streets of Rage 3 – 99¢
• Super Monkey Ball – 99¢
• Super Monkey Ball 2 – 99¢
• Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition – 99¢

I’ve heard good things about the iOS incarnations of Super Monkey Ball!

Read [Sega Blog]

Remember the Star Trek from E3 that was oozing with Mass Effect undertones? Well it’s still in development. Unfortunately, the release date has been pushed back. The Star Trek game was originally going to be released this summer, but will launch in the first quarter of 2013 instead. This places the game within the same release window as the new Star Trek film from J.J. Abrams. Coincidence? Of course it isn’t.

We also learned today that Namco Bandai will co-publish and distribute the Star Trek game “for all major home consoles and PC.”

Digital Extremes, the developer of Star Trek, is creating a standalone storyline that will be separate from the film. The story is also being worked on in part by a writer and producer who are working on the film as well.

Read [Joystiq]

In Eufloria HD, players are encouraged to plant trees, called Dyson trees, on barren asteroids. These trees then give off seedlings, which seem to be sentient. These seedlings can be directed to other asteroids to fight off hostile invaders and colonize them. If 10 seedlings are around an asteroid, players can direct them to burrow into the asteroid to form a tree. The goal in each level is pretty much to colonize all barren or enemy asteroids with your own Dyson trees. What makes it even more interesting is that each asteroid has its own stats, which influence the strengths of the seedlings that the Dyson trees on it produce.

I know, it looks odd. Trust me in that it’s much better than it looks. Take a look at the trailer to see for yourself.

It’s actually rather relaxing.

I almost wish I had an iPad to try out Eufloria HD. I downloaded and enjoyed the PS3 demo, but the control scheme seemed awkward. Since Eufloria HD relies only on touch screen controls, it should be much smoother and more intuitive.

Anyways, Eufloria HD is out now and will cost iPad owners $4.99. You’ll get a 25 level Story Mode, an endless Relaxed Mode, a Dark Matter Mode to challenge people who already completed the main levels and some skirmish levels where you can complete quick objectives. It also offers Game Center support, in case you love hoarding achievements.

Product Page [iTunes] Site [Eufloria HD]

This is probably one of the coolest videogame promotions I’ve seen in a while. Shoot My Truck is a Twisted Metal launch event that will take place on February 14 and will continue for two days. During this time, some of us will get the opportunity to shoot a M249-SAW automatic machine gun at Sweet Tooth’s ice cream truck until it literally blows up. The best part is we don’t even have to get our fingerprints on the gun to make this happen.

Through the power of the internet, the two machine guns have been connected to a satellite and will be waiting for your orders to fire. All you have to do is click a button and the guns will start shooting. Amazing right? The event will also be live streamed.

To qualify for your chance to shoot, you have to sign up at the Shoot My Truck website. There are over 100,000 bullets to shoot. Check out the video below for more information.

Read [PlayStation Blog]

Check it out. It’s filled with lots of voice-acting goodness from FemShep voice actress Jennifer Hale.

Yeah, I think she does a much better job than Mark Meer, who voices the male version of Commander Shepard.

As you can see, it’s very similar to the Mass Effect 3 trailers we’ve seen before. If anything, it’s a little more informative. We see lots of in-game footage. There are also tons of character cameos. Aside from FemShep and Anderson, Kaidan, Liara, Jacob, Samara, Miranda, Joker and Garrus all appear. Of course, you could always argue that it’s Morinth and not Samara making the appearance.

In case you’re curious and never saw the awesome “The Many Faces of FemShep” Mass Effect 2 fan-made video, here you go.

Mass Effect 3 is less than a month away and we’ll finally get to see what happens on March 6, 2012!

Site [Mass Effect 3]

The Last Guardian will most likely not be released anytime soon. We’ve only learned a few details since it was revealed in 2009. Development on The Last Guardian hit a significant speed bump last year when designer Fumito Ueda decided to leave Sony as an employee in favor of working on a contractual basis. Since then, The Last Guardian has continued its development, but it’s a slow and steady process.

1UP spoke to Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida at DICE recently and managed to get a few more details about The Last Guardian‘s development. The good news is Ueda is still very much involved with The Last Guardian. Even though he’s a contractor now, he still puts in long hours.

“He comes in every day, and he’s probably one of the people who works the longest hours,” Yoshida said. “The project has been making progress, but slow progress. So that’s tough, but we haven’t changed any focus. It’s still a really important project and a vision we want to see realized, and Fumito’s vision is really causing a very difficult challenge for the developers, so there’s some scrapping and rebuilding — iteration in the process.”

Yoshida hopes Ueda will continue working with Sony when The Last Guardian is complete, but nothing is certain.

Via [1UP]

All you impostors out there are in for a treat. The folks at Monolith are working on the first DLC pack for Gotham City Impostors, and it’s going to be free. You can expect the DLC to go live sometime in March. Along with new content will come fixes to balance weapons, optimize maps and fix exploits.

The contents of the free DLC were detailed on the Gotham City Impostors forums. It’s a pretty extensive update too. There’s going to be a new map that takes place on the 25th floor of the Gotham Times building, two new weapons called The Falcon Blade and the Kingmaker, more costume options and a new Fun Fact called Nimble Fingers.

Players across all platforms have also been experiencing matchmaking issues since launch. These problems were also present during the beta. Once the DLC hits, Monolith promises matchmaking errors will be “a thing of the past.” Players will also be able to join matches that are already in progress.

Via [Gotham City Impostors Forums]

Bedtime Stories: The Lost Dreams
Genre: Hidden Object
Availability: Big Fish Games, Harmonic Flow
Retail Price: $6.99
Platform: Windows XP or better
Premise: Help your family achieve their dreams by playing through hidden object puzzles.
Demo Available: Yes

Atlantic Journey: The Lost Brother
Genre: Hidden Object
Availability: Big Fish Games, Harmonic Flow
Retail Price: $6.99
Platform: Windows XP or better
Premise: Help Mia and her uncle travel around the world to find her missing brother, Jack.
Demo Available: Yes

Time Dreamer: Temporal Betrayal
Genre: Hidden Object
Availability: Big Fish Games, Harmonic Flow
Retail Price: $6.99
Platform: Windows XP or better
Premise: A research mission to mine krawtite has gone wrong and one of the team members is responsible. You have to find out why somebody wants to stop the mining operation.
Demo Available: Yes

Leah’s Tale
Genre: RPG
Availability: Eridani Games, Amaranth Games, Aldorlea Games
Retail Price: $19.99
Platform: Windows XP or better
Premise: This is an RPG with multiple endings following a young woman named Leah who is going to learn new secrets about herself and her world.
Demo Available: Yes

City of Secrets
Genre: Adventure
Availability: Big Fish Games, Harmonic Flow
Retail Price: $6.99
Platform: Windows XP or better
Premise: A dog named Rex fell in a hole in his basement and ended up in the mole-people kingdom. Players have to help him escape.
Demo Available: Yes

The Agency of Anomalies: Cinderstone Orphanage Collector’s Edition
Genre: Hidden Object
Availability: Big Fish Games
Retail Price: $13.99
Platform: Windows XP or better
Premise: A tragic fire happened at Cinderstone Orphanage and you must go there to find out exactly what happened and set the ghosts free. The collector’s edition includes extra puzzles and achievements.
Demo Available: Yes

Editor’s Note: Due to so many casual games sites offering game plans or preferred member prices, which can cause a game to have multiple price-points, the games’ average retail prices is mentioned in Casual Friday.

Site [Big Fish Games] Site [PlayFirst] Site [GameHouse] Site [eGames] Site [Alawar Games] Site [Amazon] Site [Reflexive Arcade] Site [Harmonic Flow]

The campaign gained some notoriety for making $400, er, $500, well a bunch of money in less than a day. It’s barely even two days in and the Double Fine team has now passed $1 million with close to 30,000 backers (and likely many more by the time you read this).

The campaign is not without controversy as some people are complaining that Double Fine is not really “indie” and to make this much money from a typically indie crowd funding site is a bit uncouth.  (Read GamerAnx‘s post for a pointed rebuttal to the complaints).

Double Fine has had significant success including Psychonauts and console game Brutal legend. The Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter campaign offers the usual pledge levels but, if you kick in more than $15,000 (which they promote on their company web site, not on the Kickstarter site) and they start promising silliness like dinners with the president and devs. Pledge more than $50K and you get to be a character in the game.

What do you think: Is Double Fine’s insanely fast funding campaign good of bad for the game industry? How about for other indie developers and studios?

Pledge [Double Fine Adventure @ Kickstarter] Read [GamerAnx]