A new Steam Update announces that Half-Life 2: Episode One will begin preloading over Steam next week, reminds us that SiN Episode 1: Emergence is gold, mentions the Red Orchestra SDK that is detailed in the story that follows this one, and pimps some swag. Here's most of it:

Congratulations to Ritual! SiN Episode 1: Emergence has officially gone GOLD. The game is now available for preloading on Steam. The full game will be unlocked on May 10th at 10am Pacific Daylight Time (17:00 GMT).

Half-Life 2: Episode One will begin preloding next week, and will be available to play June 1st. With Episode One, we really feel like we've produced our best single player game to date, and we're excited for people to be able to play it.

Meanwhile, the Red Orchestra team continues to turn out updates, the latest of which is the beta SDK for their game. If you own RO and would like to try it out, click on the "Tools" tab inside Steam.