Archives for November 2007

• Please note that these are publication date on this site, NOT the actual release date of the maps and mods

Author’s Note “As a single player, you will enter an alternate level in the Half Life 2 universe. Your objective is to reach the scientist that the Combine is holding. As the player, you will have to traverse through a zombie infested sewer and destroy the combine in order to get to your objective” Reader [...]

A while ago a mod was released called Riot Act and it was warmly received.

I contacted the author and requested an interview. Like all people who are good at something, he was quite busy and we only recently found the time to chat about the mod and some other stuff.

Following last week’s question about favourite weapons I have decided to continue the theme. This time it’s locations.

Here’s this week’s question:

What is your favourite style of Half-Life series location?

About “The player begins in a hotel lobby looking out into a street filled with zombies. When playing Half-Life 2 I felt the most enjoyable gameplay was destroying zombies with various physics objects. In my final Directed Focus Study I designed a map with this gameplay as the entire focus.” Reader Recommendations3 recommendations, average score: [...]

I’m a manhack lover. WAIT! That didn’t come out right. Allow me to rephrase that. I love fighting Manhacks. Of course not everybody does and I certainly prefer to have a projectile weapon to do it or the Gravity Gun. Here’s this week’s question:

What is your favourite type of Half-Life 2 enemy?

A small to medium mod with the player in the role of a Metrocop. Your objective? Escape from the base after all the Combine turn against you. You start with a four-person squad and face mostly other Metrocops.

Having a mod delivered directly to your game folder and being able to simply start the game and play it is obviously a great selling point. Steam has done it for games and CrosuS is trying to do something similar with mods. Here’s this week’s question:

Do you think Mod Delivery Systems are a good idea?

I often see complaints that new mods don’t include new content, such as textures, modles, sounds etc. Personally I’m not too worried about those things because I prefer to have a great map and gameplay than new things just for the sack of it.

So, this week’s poll question is:

Would you prefer new enemies or new weapons in a new Half-Life 2 SP mod?

About You start the game with a group of survivors who have barricaded themselves in. Work your way through the corridors until you meet…. Wait and see. Reader Recommendations5 recommendations, average score: 3 (out of 5), standard deviation: 0

About We value freedom when playing games. That’s why if a developer can remove the illusion of a level being a linear game it is often considered good. (I disagree, but that’s for another post!). What if a game developer took a different approach and said “The player is going to have much less control [...]

About There’s an interesting article on Gamasutra called The Gamasutra Quantum Leap Awards: First-Person Shooters. The article was published in September 2006, but is still relevant today. The site requires free registration but if you are interested in game development it’s well worth the effort.

About There doesn’t seem to be a background story but the situation seems clear. Enter a secret base/lab and kill everything you find. Not very original but still fun. Basic Details Title: Operation Krautsalat File Name: hl1-sp-operation-krautsalat-1.1.7z Original File Name: operation_krautsalat_1_1.exe Size : 24.2Mb Author: Ragman Date Released: 22 September 2007 PlanetPhillip Download Servers PlanetPhillip.Com [...]

I am posting this poll in the ideas category as well. I have been vocal in my opposition to episodic gaming. However, this week I want to propose an idea that can benefit from it.

This week’s poll question is:

Should players control the storyline with an episode-ending vote?