Valve hosting Source engine mods beginning next week

In their most recent weekly news update, Valve announced that starting next week, Steam will begin hosting certain user-created mods of Source engine titles such as Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2. Owners of any Source title will be able to download these mods for free -- what's more, Valve has promised automatic updates and stat tracking for the mods they add to the download service.

The first five mods to be highlighted by Steam are Age of Chivalry, a medieval HL2 mod (pictured above); Synergy, another mod for HL2 which adds a co-op mode to the campaign; D.I.P.R.I.P., a multiplayer vehicular combat game; Zombie Panic, a spiritual precursor to Left 4 Dead; and Insurgency, a "total conversion" mod that takes players out of City 17, and places them on a modern battlefield. Sadly, our Source-based Burgertime mod didn't make the cut. Hopefully Valve will get wise and pick it up with the next batch.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/28/va...ing-next-week/

Dude, I'm totally psyched about this. The only bad news is the first five doesn't include my three most played. It doesn't have Pirates Vikings and Knights, Empires, or Fistful of Frags. But for some reason beyond me, DIP RIP made the list. Kind of lame.