Archives for April 2010

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

As with all my “What would Freeman…”, the question relates to BEFORE the Black Mesa incident.

Let’s see if we can get a sort of consensus of his character.

To be honest, I’m not sure what kind of pet, if any, if would have. I suppose the idea of a dog by his side and him walking in the woods is appealing to me, but at the same time he might not have had a pet at all.

Combine Destiny 2 is the much awaited sequel to the zombie blasting Half-Life 2 mod; Combine Destiny. Leaving off from where the original ended, Combine Destiny 2 will bring the fight against the rebels to the next level, and the story to a new height

Starting on a moving “train” you follow your instincts to each new location.

Explore and don’t rush into any area without a good look around.

You start in a small town and have to work your way through the tunnels.

You meet Father Grigori but are blocked from reaching him and from then on your objective is to join him.

Recently, I was browsing Half-Life Library and on the frontpage I noticed a link to somebody called Kevin Bowen. I have to admit I had never heard of him, but I was curious. I read a little about him and followed the link to his Top Ten Reasons Half-Life is Still #1.

Having quite enjoyed the piece I felt it was time for me to write something similar. So, here are my 10 reasons why I love the Half-Life series of games.

As with all my “What would Freeman…”, the question relates to BEFORE the Black Mesa incident. Let’s see if we can get a sort of consensus of his character.

This week, I ask about the kind of music he listens to. As with last week, you can choose a number of options. This week you have a maximum of two votes.

I love infographics. I hope to implement something like them in a future statistics project on this site.

There is such a wealth of basic information with all the games that I have no doubt they could be used for some cool infographics.

As with all my “What would Freeman…”, the question relates to BEFORE the Black Mesa incident. Let’s see if we can get a sort of consensus of his character.

This week, I ask about the type of holidays he would have taken. You can choose a number of options this week.

There’s pretty much nos tory to this one. Get from where you start to the Antlion Guard arena and kill everything in your way.

Solve the puzzle to get the HEV suit and things get even harder after that.

Alyx and some squad friends make life a little easier for you. Don’t forget to thank them.

I have been meaning to post this for about 3 years. Seriously. 3 years. Well, here it is. A collection of maps designed for younger people. In fact let me just quote from the homepage:

“HL2 For Kids was set up in response to an idea suggested by Wisemx (HL2 Source Mapping), on the Chatbear Mapping Forum to provide younger people (3 – 12) with a series of maps to play that are non-violent, accessible and fun. The central theme of the project is the fairground or amusement park. It is hoped that a full series of maps can be put together to provide a lot of entertainment for children (and those of us who are still children !)”

Find the Gravity Gun and escape the facility.

What do we really know about Gordon Freeman? Not that much. I am sure many of you have wondered about his life outside of Black Mesa, so this could be the first of many fun polls, based around the idea of:
What Would Freeman Do?

This is an Alpha release of a conversion of Pacman. It was due to be part of the Arcadium mod I was hoping to produce but unfortunately that hasn’t happened.

It was never designed for public release, as all alphas aren’t, but I am releasing it now, with Joe’s permission, so that in conjunction with the post about the mod, it may gain some exposure and hopefully members of the mapping community will decide it’s worth the effort and take the concept further.

I would like to publicly apologize to Joe for letting him down. Sorry Joe.

Work your way around a maze and find the central waterfall.

Of course, you will find enemies and barriers to your progress, but you didn’t expect it to be easy did you?

Can you reach the center?

I’ve started this post about 10 times in the last 3 years and never finish it. In fact, at one time or another it has had its own website! I always stop and change the way I try and explain it because I am never happy with it. Well, this is the last time I start this post because I promised myself I would finish it today.

I am intrigued by the use of video games for uses other than entertainment. I’ve heard of treatment for arachnophobia with Unreal Tournament and I seem to remember something about vertigo too.

I have little doubt that lots of people have experimented with games for education, in fact there’s at least one HL2 mod that attempts to teach science and history called DoomEd. If I were 25 years younger this would probably be one area of study I would have focused on.

The mod is about a digger who is looking for an old shelter and on his search stumbles upon a secret base where everything has gone crazy. He soon realizes that he must destroy the base and the strange object that has caused all this trouble.

This poll question was inspired by Jasper. He emailed me to suggest a poll about the current mod drought and how it affected us playing our favourite mods.

I jiggled it a little to wonder whether people saved mods for rainy days (or droughts!).

You play in an untextured room, with shelves in the middle and other paraphernalia around the room.

Seemingly randomly Combine soldiers appear and your objective is to kill them for as long as possible