Category Archives: Features

• A collection of my ideas, observations, rants and general gaming articles

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A few weeks ago I was contacted by Joe Hunter, who made Smart Decoy. We chatted about the mod and the modding scene “back in the day”.

Naturally I asked what he was doing now and was pleasantly surprised to hear that has made a free online top-down MMO action shooter called Tunnelers.

Not only does it look pretty damn cool but it’s actually free to play.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so the video below must be worth at least 10,000!

You may have noticed that there is a new design for some of the site.

I have worked on creating some new display options when viewing the content.

In most case, you can now view the maps and mods (and other content too) in three ways: excerpts, thumbnails and lists.

The video below explains those three options and the benefits of each.

Although this is a few weeks old now, I decided to make a video tutorial of how to use the Personalizer and how to get the kind of results that will interest you.

Below is that video!

Here is a short video explaining the new Reviewed or Not Reviewed feature now available on PP.

Sound is out on the webcam, sorry.

The Maunsell Forts were built during the Second World War to help protect the UK from air and sea attack.

They were small fortified towers built in the Thames and Mersey estuaries.

As much as they are very interesting, visually, architecturally and historically, I don’ think you should rushing to copy them. For me, the most useful aspect is one of inspiration.

MapTap 2.1 Now Available

This release contains a new feature. The file and right-click menu item now has a link to “Open review page”. This will search PP and open the post of the map you have highlighted.

It should work perfectly, but if you have any issues, please let me know via Email.

In addition, this release gives the column widths better spacing.

Current MapTap users should be notified of the update the next time they start the application.

I’m torn. Torn between incredible admiration for such amazing work and frustration & disappointment with the outcome.

I started to write an article about how I felt G-String was bad for the community but then I realised that only presenting the negative aspects was unfair.

I think we would all agree that as games have progressed, so has the amount of interaction between the player and the game.

In Half-Life 1, you could push creates around, shoot shit, press buttons, open doors and had interaction with the environment.

I love Steam. Really, even from the beginning and Valve are always updating and improving it but I just wish I could sit down with the guy/gal or team behind the user experience and chat with them.

I am sure they know how much more it could be and they have a planned improvement programme but I just want to have a few things now.

So, here are 7 Things I wish Steam would allow me to do.

Don’t forget to add your own in the comments.

Okay, I’ll be honest here, I’m not exactly sure I know what I am trying to say with this article, so I’ll just write what I think I mean and see what happens.

A little while ago, I watched a TV show and somebody said something like… “Studies have shown that the more sexual partners you have, the less happy you are with your final partner”.

I am pleased to announce that the next version of MapTap is now available.

It has the following new features:

• A built in browser, allowing you find files and use them directly within the app.
• Support of most Half-Life 1 maps. Some may not work, but most should
• A “favourite” feature, to allow you to favourite maps, making them easier to find
• An “Open the folder” feature, making it easy to view any ReadMe or screenshots

There’s a few other little things, but those are the ones that count.

I am pleased to announce the 6×10 Mapping Competitions Event.

This is a mapping Competition Event that will run through the Summer and in Autumn.

Here are the highlights:

I am pleased to announce a few new features on the site.

The main one is the Display Matrix, whose purpose to to help readers find new and interesting content.

In this article, I am going to describe MY 7 stages to perfect gaming.

Please bear with me while I explain how I got there!

I carry my new netbook with me everywhere. I bought it for my work but because I always have stuff to do on the site, it’s useful for me to be able to whip it out and do a bit of admin or even writing if there’s no Net connection.

I love the saying “There are two types of computer users: Those who have lost data and those who will lose data!”

I’ve lost more data than you can imagine, but I haven’t really lost any “work”.

And this is the important part.

I want to keep running mapping competitions, I really do, but it’s very disheartening to fail.

Now, everybody, both mapper and players, have their own ideas for themes and as happened with GravityGunVille, even letting professional level designer pick the theme is no guarantee you’ll get great entries.

For every theme that somebody selects there are two people who will complain about.

What I would like to do is arrange a group chat with as many mappers as possible to discuss possible changes to the format.

I have a few ideas of my own but mostly I want to hear theirs. I could do it here as a post and comment, but I prefer to do it on Steam.

So, who is interested and when would be a good time?

I think that from tomorrow onwards, anytime I am online, I will also get into the PP Group’s Steam chat and be available if modders want to chat with me.

This is a temporary post and will be deleted in a week or so.

First, they came for Call of Duty,
and I didn’t speak out because I’d bored myself of war shooters.

Then they came for the $59.99 price tag,
and I didn’t speak out because I got a job.

Then they came for micro-transactions,
and I didn’t speak out because I didn’t play TF2 anymore.

Then they came for Mass Effect 3,
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

As a level designer I often take a keen interest in the puzzles that others include in their maps. Half Life 2 offers a huge wealth of puzzle possibilities due to the physics engine and the gravity gun. If you ask a player what their favourite puzzle in a game was they could probably tell you immediately (I’d like to know yours by the way) but they may not be able to tell you why.

Equally they may struggle to explain why a bad puzzle doesn’t work, but in reality there are rules to a good game based puzzle and if you follow them, as a mapper you can’t go wrong.

Here’s my rules that I’ve learnt through creating maps and playtesting on how to create a good puzzle.

Courtesy of me, I have Portal 2 to giveaway.

“Portal 2 draws from the award-winning formula of innovative gameplay, story, and music that earned the original Portal over 70 industry accolades and created a cult following. The single-player portion of Portal 2 introduces a cast of dynamic new characters, a host of fresh puzzle elements, and a much larger set of devious test chambers.”

To win, you need to be a member of the PlanetPhillip Steam Group AND comment on this post.

One comment per person: NO CHEATERS!

If the game hasn’t been claimed in 7 days, I will select another random winner.

Winner announced next weekend sometime.

Courtesy of a kind PP reader; Greenman, I have The Ship and The Ship Single Player to giveaway. It’s ONE giveaway – the winner gets both games.

“The Ship is primarily a multiplayer, online murder game with a unique set of game rules.The Ship is owned by the mysterious Mr X and as one of many ‘lucky’ recipients of a free ticket you arrive on board The Ship to find there’s a catch to your luxury cruise.”

Late last year a pp reader posted a review about a map which went against the general consensus. Everybody has a right to their own opinion and if somebody doesn’t like a mod that most people do then that’s fine.

Well, most of the time it’s fine.

Want to win half-Life 2? Maybe you have a friend who wants it? Either way, all you need to is imagine what the tagline of HL3/Ep3 would be.

In case you don’t know, the tagline is the a form of advertising slogan and is usual used just after the name of the product.

I’ve owned X-Boxes, Playstations, and even have a Wii collecting dust at home. They’re fun but none of them come close to the PC gaming experience.

Here are my 7 reasons why….

Wikipedia defines Flashbulb Memories as “a highly detailed, exceptionally vivid ‘snapshot’ of the moment and circumstances in which a piece of surprising and consequential (or emotionally arousing) news was heard.”

We normally associate flashbulb memories with incredibly sociological events and I in no way want to belittle these types of events or their consequences by comparing our mini-memories of videos games to these events.