Gabe Newell to Keynote D.I.C.E.

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has tapped Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve to deliver a keynote address at the 2009 D.I.C.E. Summit. The event will be held at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, February 17-20.

D.I.C.E. Summit 2009 will also play host to the 12th annual Interactive Achievement Awards ceremony on February 19, with Jay Mohr returning for his fourth year to host the award festivities. Announced speakers revealed after the jump.

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Alienware’s Games Convention Plans

Alienware (a division of Dell) will be at Games Convention 2008 in Leipzig, Germany next week supporting a number of developers and hosting special events. The company announced today that it has partnered with 4Players, Ascaron, Team SPEED-Link and Bethesda on a number of events and plans to show off two new PCs at the show.

At its booth (Hall 2, Stand J02) the company will showcase two of its latest Area 51and Aurora desktop PCs. Valve software’s Gabe Newell will also be on hand as a special guests and a special airbrushed Alienware system (Mercenaries) will be given away in a raffle.

Other activities that Alienware will help support include the official GC Live for Speed race organized by SPEED-Link, sponsorship of the Intel Extreme Masters III tournament, Ascaron’s Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, and more. Mostly the company will be the platform of choice to run PC games. Most notably, Area-51 systems will be used to showcase the PC version of Fallout 3.

You can learn more about Alienware’s activities at GC this year by visiting www.alienware.co.uk/GC08.

Left 4 Dead Details

Valve’s Left 4 Dead was shown during EA’s press conference this week, with a few more details divulged by Gabe Newell, the company’s founder. This cooperative horror survival style action game will feature a brand new matchmaking service, 4 player online player and two-player local split-screen play, and what Newell calls a dynamic shared narrative.

This makes sense if you consider that you’ll be teaming up with your buddy to survive a vicious onslaught of nasty old zombies. The game will also feature Counter-Strike style weaponry and melee combat - mainly for when said zombie decide to have a nibble of your sweet human flesh.

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