Tech Olive

Firefox 4 is getting closer and closer to a final version, and since the 7th beta of Firefox 4 is complete as far as the features go, this 8th beta focuses on last-minute bug fixes and touch-ups. Hopefully we should see a release candidate of Mozilla’s new browser real soon and the final version thereafter, which would be a great way to start off the new year.

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Release Notes

The size of Steam’s Holiday 2010 sale simply cannot be overstated. Bringing discounts of up to 90% off to 1,034 games, there’s no chance you can browse over all these deals without buying yourself an early Christmas present. Ready for the clincher? A new batch of sales is going live every 24 hours from now until January 2nd.

Because we have no intention of listing over a thousand games with their respective prices here, you’ll have to head over to Steam’s online store and browse their digital Holiday catalog.

Offering a bit of Christmas spirit, Stout Games is giving an extra copy of „Dinner Date” to anyone that purchased their copy before December 23rd. So you’ve got a few days to grab yourself a copy of the game at $12.45 and ensure you’ll get a free gift code for a friend.

In the spirit of sharing, Stout Games will give every person who purchases „Dinner Date” a free additional copy on December 23rd: to put under the tree for a lucky recipient!

This indeed means that every account which owns at least one copy of „Dinner Date” on the 23rd will receive an additional copy, compliments of Stout Games – including those who have purchased the game as early as the pre-release!

[Announcement]

Black Ops‘ first map pack, titled “First Strike”, has been announced as an unsurprising $15 timed Xbox 360 exclusive, with PC release probably following about a month later. It’s unclear at this point whether PC gamers will be getting the new maps for free or not. If history (MW2) is any indication, we’ll no doubt be paying $15 as well through Steam, but we can still dream. First Strike will include the following maps:

• Discovery, based on the singleplayer Antarctic research station mission.
• Kowloon, based on the singleplayer Kowloon rooftop mission.
• Berlin Wall, based on the singleplayer battle at Checkpoint Charlie.
• Stadium, based in an American hockey rink.
• Ascension, a new co-op Zombie map.

via [Big Download]

For those that complained about Best Buy’s 15% restocking fee, it seems like the consumer electronics superstore listened because they’re getting rid of their restocking fees except special orders. The move took place on December 18th. What’s even better is that Best Buy will refund any restocking fee that they’ve charged since November 17th!

via [The Consumerist]

The past week’s best news and featured content you might have missed…

Recap: 2010 Video Game Awards
- Thanks to my PC committing suicide during my most recent cleaning of fans and filters, I actually missed the live stream of this year’s VGAs. Luckily, I grabbed myself an HD recording of the event, so join us in playing a bit of “catch up”. What did this year’s Video Game Awards have to offer the PC gamers of the world? Read on to find out!

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The awesome charity-driving second Humble Indie Bundle has not only broken $1,000,000 of sales in just a few days, but the package now also comes with activation keys for the games on Steam and Desura. If you haven’t grabbed a bundle for yourself, or you know someone that needs some awesome indie games, buy/donate here.

“Now you can redeem your http://humblebundle.com on Steam and Desura! It is a “subscription” key, which means Cortex Command and Revenge of the Titans will be auto-added to your library when they debut on Steam” – via Twitter

The guys behind the bundle are also asking that any “pirates” that downloaded the game from torrent sites fill out an anonymous form so that they can better understand your motivation. So if you opted to illegally download the bundle that you could have gotten for $0.01, and you’re willing to explain yourself, head over to this form and answer the questions.

The top ten best-selling games on Steam from the past week:

1. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam
2. Civilization V
3. Just Cause 2
4. Metro 2033
5. Killing Floor
6. Battlefield: Bad Company 2
7. Killing Floor Bundle
8. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
9. Worms Reloaded
10. Amnesia: The Dark Descent

I Could Eat is a feature that showcases a scrumptious snack or drink that we think other geeks and gamers “could eat” (in other words, would greatly enjoy). If you have any snacks or drinks that you think are worthy of an I Could Eat shout out, let us know!

For several months, the Oreo Cakesters have taunted me from the shelves of the snack aisle. Could they really deliver on their promise of soft Oreos without the need for milk? Or was this all just marketing hype and black-magic trickery? Today I will put my money, mouth, and stomach on the line to answer this great mystery. Paramedics are standing by.

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The seventh and final round of Steam’s Great Treasure Hunt is a little underwhelming with sales, but we get Empire: Total War for $14.99 and Flight Control HD for $2.49. This batch of challenges are as follows:

• Write a recommendation.
• Become a Founding Father in Empire: Total War.
• Set a leaderboard score of at least 37 for ‘Beach’ in Flight Control HD.
• Played at least 15 games or demos since March 2009 (When Steam began recording playtime).

And don’t forget that you can still catch up on previous challenges if you missed any over the past two weeks.