I have created this short tour to help new visitors get the most from the site, although regular visitors may also learn something new.
The tour focuses on the major features of the site and the best ways to find what you are looking for.
The tour contains only the briefest of highlights and links to more information are given where appropriate.
Home | Tour Menu | About the site | Let's get specific | There's other content too! | Search and ye shall find! | Browse and be surprised | Introducing...TAGS! | The Anatomy of a map page | Commenting and Reviewing | Recommendation Images | The Footer | RSS Feeds | The Learning Center | The Forum | Summary
In 1998 a game development company called Valve released a first person shooter game called Half-Life.
This game came with an application that allowed users the ability to create new environments to play the game, which is similar to creating new chapters and adventures for your favourite book.
These environments, generally called maps, are free and distributed via the Internet and often tell interesting side-stories.
PlanetPhillip.com lists and reviews a specific type of map made for the Half-Life series of games.
There are various types of gameplay modes and this site concentrates on Single Player. This generally means you are playing within a story-based adventure and playing on your own, with no other human players involved in your game.
There are thousands of maps available for the other gameplay modes but not so many for Single Player. I have attempted to list all I can find and make it easy for other players to find, play and comment on each one.
To my knowledge, PlanetPhillip lists more single player Half-Life maps and mods than any other website.
Besides listing single player maps and mods for Half-Life games, PlanetPhillip also offers other gaming-related content.
I also list single player maps for some other games, including Doom 3, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Chaser, although I no longer add new maps to these games. These games are listed in the lower part of every page under the Archived Games section.
PlanetPhillip's other content includes interviews with the people who make the maps and mods; weekly poll questions focused on serious gaming issues; walkthroughs- visual guides to help you complete the maps listed; and my very opinionated blog about gaming.
PlanetPhillip lists more than 1,000 maps and mods and along with all the other content, finding exactly what you are looking for can seem a little daunting.
Don't worry, because the site contains both a regular and advanced search. The regular search is at the very top of every page and the advanced search can be found here: Advanced Search.
To use the regular search simply click in the search box with your mouse and type your search word (s) and press enter.
In addition there is a Search Guide that will ensure your searches are more fruitful.
Searching is great if you know what you are looking for but what about when you don't? Well, there are a few ways to just browse.
The first is to select a game you want to find maps for and looking through the list for a title that interests you.
In fact, you could look through the complete list of maps and mods because the title has the name of the map and the game it is designed for.
The second way is to visit the Dated Archives page that lists every page in chronological order.
Since January 2008 all Half-Life 1, Half-Life 2, HL2: Episode One and HL2: Episode Two maps and mods that I have added have also been tagged.
A tag is just a fancy name for descriptive keywords. These tags help define the content of a map.
Imagine you want to play maps that contain the rocket launcher.
Just click the Rocket Launcher link listed in the TAGS section of the sitemap.
There's not enough space here to elaborate but everything you need to know about tags can be found in the Tag Guide page.
Let's have a quick look at the anatomy of a map page and whilst not every page is the same most are.
At the top is a brief, factual description and/or the storyline of the map. Under that are the Basic Details (Author's name, release date etc), then comes the list of Download Servers, next are some Installation Instructions, and lastly are the Screenshots, that when clicked open to a larger manual slideshow.
Occasionally there will be some Author's Notes and PlanetPhillip Notes. For the better maps I have also started to include some Flash Panoramic Movies.
The last part of the page is the Comments section, which is discussed in greater detail on the next page of this tour.
One of the great features of the site is that every map can be commented upon. This means that once you have found and played a map you can tell others what you think about it.
No special skill or experience is required to comment or review, you just type what you want to say in the Comment box and click the Submit button.
I constantly monitor what is being posted and I edit any comments which are offensive. This is a family safe website.
More information can be found on the Commenting Guide page.
When you comment on a map you have the option of adding a Recommendation Image. This is a simple visual representation of your review or comment.
These images allow other readers to quickly gauge the opinions of other readers and players.
To add an image you just need to click its thumbnail image, just below the comment text area, and it will automatically be inserted in the comment area before your text.
More information can be found on the Recommendation Images Guide page.
One important aspect of the site is the Footer. This part of the site is at the bottom and contains links to almost everything you may want to view.
Some sections are dynamic, which means they are constantly changing and updating.
Others are static and are just for reference.
There are many links in the footer that could save you some time searching. When you are done with the tour, why not have a look?
One fantastic aspect of the site that can really make your viewing easier is called RSS Feeds.
Put simply: instead of you visiting the site to see what's new, the site sends the information to a reader of your choice.
This isn't the place to go into details but I have created a page called What Are RSS Feeds? that explains everything in easy to read English.
I am very conscious of the fact that downloading, installing and launching maps and mods can seem to be difficult to new users.
That is why I plan to launch a new section of the site called
The Learning Center sometime in September 2008.
The section will explain in detail everything a new user needs to know about the Half-Life series of games and how to install and run the mods, plus other useful information.
Stay tuned for more information soon.
A great website wouldn't be a great website without a Forum. This is the place to discuss a wide range of topics including movies, other games, etc.
The major difference between this and the other parts of the site is that everybody can start topics.
It's easy to start using and doesn't require registration, just like the main site. So as soon as you have finished the tour (only one page left!) why not visit the forum and introduce yourself?
Well, there you have it. The tour is over. Thank you for taking the time to get this far.
I hope you have learnt something new and are inspired to start using the site.
This tour has only touched on the most important content and features of the site and I highly recommend new visitors to visit the Site Help Center for complete information or the FAQ page.
The site is not perfect and I am always interested to hear readers' views. I have created a survey that helps me to improve the site and its content. Please feel free to complete it.
